Darwin Hopwood is a lecturer in finance and the Commercial Banking Board Faculty Fellow in the Lee Business School where he teaches a wide range of finance courses in investments, corporate finance, financial literacy and commercial banking.  Darwin developed and is the coordinator of the Lee Business School Commercial Banking Program.  As coordinator, Darwin teaches banking classes, is responsible for outreach to the banking community to gather input for class curriculum, guest speakers for banking classes, coordinates financial internships in banking and helps identify job opportunities in the banking industry for program students.  He also raises funds to financially support for the program.  Darwin holds an MBA from UNLV and has extensive experience working in finance including banking, bank regulation, money management, corporate finance and financial management consulting. 

The Commercial Banking Program was been designed in partnership with the local banking community to develop a pipeline of trained talent for the banking industry by combining formal learning, industry experience and professional mentoring. The program’s main elements are course work specifically designed to develop banking skills, practical industry experience through a paid internship, and mentoring provided by bank executives.  Currently, the program provides instruction for approximately 65 banking students per year in program coursework that includes 12 credits in specialized commercial banking courses.  Over the eight-year history of the program over 500 students have received banking instruction and program graduates have received internships and job offers from nine local banks and two bank regulatory agencies.

Darwin is also active in community engagement.  In addition to coordinating the banking program he currently serves on the board of the southern Nevada chapter of Risk Management and Associates and has spoken extensively to small business education events and speaks annually at the Nevada Bankers Association conference.

• Coordinator Lee Business School Commercial Bank Program and Commercial Bank Advisory Board Fellow

• Lead instructor for financial literacy and coordinator for CCSD dual credit financial literacy classes

• Serves on the Board of Directors southern Nevada chapter of Risk Management and Associates

• Former Lee Business School Teacher of the Year

• Spoken extensively on financial literacy, to small business education events and speaks annually at the Nevada Bankers Association conference.