By Caroline Newman
Newswise, May 20, 2017 — Bingley “Barker” Squire (Class of
2017) first realized he could sing in public when his middle school choir
director persuaded him to play the Beast in the school’s stage version of the
Disney classic, “Beauty and the Beast.”
“I knew I could sing at an early age, but I had not sung in
front of anyone else until then,” Squire said. “I enjoyed it, and it gave me
more confidence.”
In the decades since that first performance, Squire, who will
graduate from the University of
Virginia Darden School of Business in May, has tested his abilities on
several different stages. He has served as a captain in the U.S. Marine Corps
and completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan, earned multiple scholarships to
finance his education at Darden and proposed to his fiancé, fellow Darden
Second Year Molly Duncan.
He also hasn’t let his musical talent go to waste; he is a
published singer-songwriter and the president of Darden’s a cappella group, the
Cold Call Chorus. His self-titled album, published in 2014, includes original
country and jazz tracks inspired by the places he has been and the people he
has met.
Finance professor Marc
Lipson, one of Squire’s mentors who also plays alongside him in a
faculty-student band, said that Squire’s creativity helps him to stand out even
among a class of extraordinary achievers.
“Creativity is more than anything an outgrowth of cooperative
thinking. You have to want to work with other musicians, respect each other and
put the group ahead of your own performance, and Barker brings that quality to
any group,” Lipson said. “He is more than a magnificent student. He has the
ability to bring people together to do things that are meaningful in a way I
have never seen other students be able to do.”
Squire, who grew up in Emporia, Virginia, earned his
undergraduate degree from the Virginia Military Institute, where he graduated
as the second-highest-ranking cadet militarily and highest-ranking cadet
academically. He subsequently served four years in the Marine Corps, including
a 2012–13 stint in Afghanistan, where he commanded a 100-person outpost and
supervised 300 combat missions.
“I had an interest in the military from an early age, and I
think some of that came from my grandfather, who served in World War II,”
Squire said. “I was interested in leading and helping other people, and looking
for opportunities where I really could lead, make an impact and be a part of something
bigger than myself.”
In Afghanistan, Squire worked with fellow Marines, the Afghan
army and police force and local tribal elders to promote peace in the region.
He challenged himself not only to master the logistics of running a base nearly
30 miles from the nearest military outpost, but also to learn a bit of the
local language, Pashtu, and bridge the cultural divide between the American
Marines and the Afghan citizens.
“I learned how to negotiate and work through all kinds of
problems in a Third World country,” he said. “On the whole, the Afghan people
were very nice. They just wanted to keep their families safe and make a living,
and unfortunately they are in a part of the world where that is really hard to
do.”
Squire also discovered that he truly enjoyed, and had a talent
for, building organizations. After four years in the military, he was eager to
test that talent in civilian life, and business school seemed like a natural
next step.
“I had a tremendous experience in the military, learned so much
about myself, about leadership and working with other people,” he said. “I also
have a creative side and love building organizations, and my ability to do that
in the military was somewhat restricted. I wanted a bit more autonomy.”
At Darden, Squire, who studied history at VMI, focused on
mastering finance and other quantitative skills and exploring entrepreneurship.
He also continued his interest in history, taking courses like “Post-Watergate
U.S. Presidents,” taught by Dean Emeritus Robert
Bruner.
“We have been working through the memoirs of post-Watergate
presidents, starting with Ford and concluding with our current president,”
Squire said. “I love reading about the situations that heads of state found
themselves in and seeing how they worked through those situations.”
To hone his general management skills, Squire spent last
summer working for a subsidiary of Danaher Corp., helping the manufacturing
firm launch a new customer platform. After graduation, he plans to purchase and
manage a company in Charlotte, North Carolina, where his fiancé has accepted a
position with consulting firm McKinsey & Co.
“Longer-term, I would love to start my own business, but right
now I am hoping to buy an existing business,” he said, noting that the
scholarships he received, including the Colonel James L. Fowler USMC
Scholarship and the Frank E. Genovese Second Year Fellowship, have made it
possible for him to take on that challenge. “Those scholarships have helped me
limit my debt and feel more comfortable about the large risk that I am about to
take on.”
Whatever comes next, he is confident that his time at Darden
has prepared him well.
“I am much more equipped now,” Squire said. “I have always had
the passion and the desire to build great things, but I have such a great
foundation now to actually do that and do it successfully.”
This story originally appeared on UVAToday.com.
