The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the second-oldest school in the U.S. - and second to none when it comes to influencing business education and business practices. Here are some highlights from Chicago Booth’s rich history of innovation.
David Booth, '71, gives a $300 million gift to the renamed University of Chicago Booth School of Business - the largest donation ever made to a business school.
Learn more about David Booth
Harper Center in Hyde Park is named for Charles “Mike” Harper, ’50, who supported the school with a major gift.
Chicago Booth announces relocation of Barcelona campus to London – campus opens in Summer 2005.
The new Charles M. Harper Center opens in Hyde Park.
Chicago Booth breaks ground for a new Hyde Park campus.
GSB launches its largest-ever capital campaign.
Executive MBA Program classes begin at Chicago Booth's new Singapore campus.
Chicago Booth celebrates its centennial.
First business school to have six Nobel Prize winners: George Stigler, 1982; Merton Miller, 1990; Ronald Coase, 1991; Gary Becker, 1992; Robert Fogel, 1993; and Myron Scholes, 1997.
Myron Scholes, MBA ’64, PhD ’70, a former faculty member, wins a Nobel Prize for his role in developing the formula used to value stock options.
Eric Gleacher, ’67, makes a $15 million challenge grant to the GSB, naming the downtown facility in Gleacher center.
Executive MBA classes begin at Chicago Booth’s new campus in Barcelona.
New downtown campus opens, offering greatly improved classrooms and conference facilities. Executive MBA program goes global, debuting in Barcelona
Robert Fogel wins a Nobel Prize for using economic tools to understand historical institutions and trends
Gary Becker wins a Nobel Prize for extending microeconomic analysis to a wide range of human behavior
Ronald Coase wins a Nobel Prize for his work showing that property rights and transaction costs shape the organization of economic activity.
Merton Miller wins a Nobel Prize for demonstrating that the laws of microeconomics apply to corporate finance.
The LEAD program begins with the aim of fostering the development of students' leadership capabilities.
Chicago Booth offers first Weekend MBA program.
First business school faculty member, George Stigler, to receive a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Finance professor Fischer Black and Myron Scholes, MBA ’64, PhD ’70, publish the Black-Scholes model for valuing options.
The Theory of Finance is published by Eugene Fama and Merton Miller.
- GSB students found the National Black MBA Association
Chicago Booth students found the National Black MBA Association (the Association was incorporated in 1974).
Birth of efficient markets theory originally published by Eugene Fama, MBA ’60, PhD ’64, “The Behavior of Stock-Market Prices,” in the Journal of Business.
Dean George P. Shultz develops first minority scholarship program at a business school.
James Lorie and Lawrence Fisher establish the Center for Research in Securities Prices, enabling rigorous empirical analysis of stock prices and investment theories.
Renamed the Graduate School of Business.
Wallis and Lorie’s approach wins a grant of $1.375 million from the Ford Foundation, allowing the GSB to soon recruit such faculty as George Shultz, George Stigler, and Merton Miller.
Dean W. Allen Wallis and associate dean James Lorie develop a 10-year plan called “The Chicago Approach to Business Education,” the first alternative to Harvard’s case study model.
First Executive MBA program for experienced managers offered
Chicago awards its first MBA to an African American, Lionel Wallace. Undergraduate program is phased out; focus is placed on graduate education.
Evening MBA program begins in downtown Chicago.
Business student Jay Berwanger wins the first Heisman Trophy. First MBA is awarded.
First program to educate hospital administrators.
School is renamed to the School of Business.
First university to grant a PhD in business to a woman, Ursula Batchelder Stone.
The Journal of Business, first academic business journal, is founded at Chicago.
Arthur Turnbull, PhD is first African American to receive degree in business from Booth.
First doctoral program in business offered.
Materials for the Studies of Business Series—the first comprehensive business curriculum—is developed at Chicago. School is renamed the School of Commerce and Administration.
Henry R. Hatfield is named first Dean and school is renamed the College of Commerce and Administration.
The College of Commerce and Politics founded at the University of Chicago to offer practical business instruction.
"Scientific guidance and investigation of great economic and social matters of everyday importance are the crying needs."
—William Rainey Harper
President of the University of Chicago