Celebrating 125 Years of Expanding our Global Presence—from Chicago to the World

The School Is Renamed the College of Commerce and Administration
The newly established College of Commerce and Politics had no separate faculty, administration, or curriculum of its own, but it was issued a budget of $5,800 to operate. That changed in 1902. On March 15, a university senate committee laid the groundwork for establishing the new division of the university, and the faculty of the new College of Commerce and Administration held their first meeting on April 26, 1902.

Henry R. Hatfield—Humanist, Scholar, and Accounting Educator—Is Named the First Dean
Hatfield is generally regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of academic accounting in the United States. Born in 1866 in Chicago, he earned a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1897, having previously been affiliated with the municipal bond business. In 1902, he accepted an assistant professorship at the newly created College of Commerce and Administration and became the business school’s first dean, a position he held until 1904. He left to join the University of California at Berkeley, where he held many leadership positions, including dean of Berkeley’s College of Commerce. He was long regarded as “the dean of accounting teachers everywhere,” according to biographer Stephen A. Zeff, and his two books, Modern Accounting and Accounting, were among the most revered reference works in the first half of the 20th century.

American History Scholar Francis W. Shepardson Becomes the Second Dean
Shepardson became the second dean of the College of Commerce and Administration in 1904 and held the position until 1906. As a graduate student at Yale, Shepardson attracted the attention of William Rainey Harper, and the university’s first president was instrumental in bringing Shepardson to the University of Chicago. A scholar of American history and the author of several books, Shepardson worked for and taught at UChicago for 25 years. He is perhaps best known for his efforts on behalf of the fraternity system. He was a founder of the National Interfraternity Conference, now the North American Interfraternity Conference, and later served as its chairman.

Charles Edward Merriam—Advisor to Presidents—Becomes the Third Dean
Merriam led an extraordinary life. He was a renowned political scientist who was a prominent intellectual in the Progressive movement and advised US presidents. He was a politician who served as an alderman of Chicago’s Seventh Ward, where he developed a national reputation for rooting out corruption. He was a professor who educated students at UChicago for four decades from his own experience in the political process. And he was a soldier who, at 43, joined the US Army Signal Corps during World War I as a commissioned captain. Merriam retired from the University of Chicago in 1940.

A Visionary: Leon Carroll Marshall Becomes the Fourth Dean
Marshall became the fourth dean of the business school when he was just 30 years old, and he played a major role in laying the groundwork for what Chicago Booth is today. Marshall had a bold vision when he became dean: he imagined the school as a “‘community of scholars,” not one that simply offered vocational training, and he envisioned the business school as “a place for truly scientific work.” He worked hard to bring that vision to life. In his 15-year tenure as dean, Marshall succeeded in establishing the first business doctoral program, which saw the first PhD students graduate in 1922. He also helped lay the groundwork for the first scholarly journal of business, the Journal of Business.

World’s First PhD Program in Business Begins
The scientific study of business started here in 1920, with the creation of the nation’s first doctoral program in business. Back then, Booth was known as the College of Commerce and Administration. Today, there are more than 700 PhD alumni globally, many working as academic researchers and scholars at some of the world’s most elite institutions of higher learning.

The First PhD Students Graduate
The doctoral program saw its first PhD graduate students in 1922: Albert Claire Hodge and Waldo Mitchell. Mitchell, the son of a Civil War veteran, was an Indiana native who grew up on his family’s farm. He taught classes in industrial society and business administration at Booth while pursuing his doctorate. During the program, Hodge wrote Principles of Accounting (1920), coauthored with James O. McKinsey, AM ’19, the future founder of the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Then-dean Leon C. Marshall provided the editor’s preface, describing his vision for the text to become part of a unified and coherent business curriculum, which was lacking at the collegiate level at the time.

William Homer Spencer Becomes Dean, the Fifth of the School
Spencer became dean of the business school in 1924, inheriting from his predecessor a doctoral program and a strong group of faculty. He presided over a series of changes intended to “professionalize” the school. "The University of Chicago," Spencer said in 1931, “is interested in a distinctive program of training for business in which emphasis is placed upon [the] educational method.” Spencer taught courses in a number of subjects, including business law, political science, and Latin.

The Journal of Business Is Launched
The first scholarly journal to focus on business-related topics, the Journal of Business of the University of Chicago played a key role in positioning business as a serious academic discipline. Early issues published research on everything from collegiate business education and Canadian labor law to the personal automobile “as an instrument of injury and death.” Published quarterly, the journal was available at an annual subscription price of $4. (Canadian subscribers paid an additional 15 cents in postage.) The journal ceased publication in 2006 after nearly 80 years of breaking new ground on wide-ranging topics such as stock market manipulations, corporate payouts, and debt maturity.

The First Woman to Earn a PhD in Business Does So Here
Ursula Batchelder Stone, PhD ’29, made history when she became the first woman to earn a PhD in business from an American university. A Bryn Mawr graduate, Stone focused her research on consumer economics and wrote her dissertation on the baking industry “with special reference to the bread-making industry in Chicago.” After graduating, she cofounded a consulting firm, fought for women’s rights, helped revitalize Hyde Park, and taught at George Williams College. Today, with this history in mind, Booth remains at the forefront of advancing women in business.

The World’s First Executive MBA Program Begins Here
The world’s first executive MBA program began at the University of Chicago in 1943, with a group of 52 students meeting two nights a week at 19 South Michigan Avenue. The program was “an immediate success story,” according to professor Walter David “Bud” Fackler, who would later become director of the program. “There was an important market niche to be served,” Fackler added, “and there was a good product presented by a small but excellent faculty.” Today, we bring The Chicago Approach to more than 240 Executive MBA Program students in Chicago, London, and Hong Kong.

Garfield V. Cox, PhD ’29, Becomes the Sixth Dean of Booth
A member of the faculty since 1920, Cox had served as acting dean beginning in October 1942. “The appointment of Mr. Cox as head of the School of Business comes in recognition of his long teaching career and his inspiring administration as acting dean,” said university president Robert Maynard Hutchins at the time. Cox achieved national recognition in 1930 with the publication of An Appraisal of American Business Forecasts and contributed scholarly work to a variety of business and finance journals throughout his career. Cox served as the 13th president of the American Finance Association and as an advisor to banks and other organizations. He served as dean until 1952 and retired from the school in 1958.

John E. Jeuck, AB ’37, MBA ’38, PhD ’49, Is Named the Seventh Dean of Booth
An award-winning teacher and scholar of business history and corporate strategy, Jeuck streamlined the school’s curriculum, focused on faculty recruitment, and opened a new downtown Chicago campus. A graduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned an AB, an MBA, and a PhD, Jeuck served in the Navy during World War II, including three years as an officer on a destroyer escort in the Pacific. He joined the business school faculty in 1946 and stayed there until 1988 except for three years (1955–58) when he taught at Harvard Business School. Jeuck’s 1950 book, Catalogues and Counters: A History of Sears, Roebuck & Company, coauthored with Boris Emmet, is widely considered to be one of the leading business histories of its era. Jeuck served as dean from 1952 to 1955 and was the founder of Booth’s Distinguished Fellows Program, which began in 2003 and provides five select incoming MBA students with a scholarship, leadership education, and the opportunity to build a community and support network that will last a lifetime.

Business Forecast—Today Known as Economic Outlook—Is Created
Booth is renowned for faculty whose insights and analyses reshape the face of business, markets, and the global economy. The strength of our global business school’s unique perspective is reflected in one of the school’s most venerable traditions, Economic Outlook, which was established in 1954 as Business Forecast. Each year, faculty members and other thought leaders, including Booth alumni, come together to evaluate emerging trends and share key insights with attendees about the state and future of the global economy. Today, events are held in Chicago, London, and Hong Kong each year.

W. Allen Wallis Becomes the Eighth Dean of Booth
Wallis, a professor in statistics at the business school, served as dean from 1956 to 1962. Together with associate dean James H. Lorie, PhD ’47 (Economics), Wallis upended business education with an educational philosophy that became The Chicago Approach, a groundbreaking framework that teaches the fundamental disciplines underlying business operations. “We changed the character of the Business School drastically in ways that other business schools have subsequently followed to some degree,” Wallis recalled in a 1991 interview with Statistical Science. “But at that time, it was considered either radical or screwball—or both.” Wallis left the University of Chicago in 1962 to become president of the University of Rochester. After that, he served in the Reagan administration as the under secretary of state for economic affairs.

The Center for Research in Security Prices Launches
In 1960, professor James H. Lorie, PhD ’47, led the establishment of the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP), a complete and accurate stock database to support financial and economic research. Lorie helped collect and research the accuracy of each piece of stock data, including prices, dividends, and rates of return on all stocks listed and trading on the New York Stock Exchange since 1929. The project allowed the average rate of return to be measured for the first time. Today, nearly 500 academic institutions in 35 countries rely on CRSP data to support academic research and classroom instruction, and it is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Chicago. CRSP retains a strong affiliation with both the University of Chicago and Booth.

George P. Shultz Is Named the Ninth Dean of Booth
When Shultz joined the UChicago faculty in 1957, he had already started a distinguished political career by serving as a senior staff economist on president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisers. He would go on to work in the Nixon administration and help president Ronald Reagan resolve the Cold War as the US secretary of state. At Booth, he established the first scholarship for Black students at a major business school, created the International Business Exchange Program, launched several research centers, and built the Selected Papers Series, which advanced the school’s reputation by making faculty research readily accessible to the business world. Shultz served as dean from 1962 to 1969.

Sidney Davidson Becomes the 10th Dean of Booth
A nationally recognized scholar of accounting whose research changed practices in boardrooms and on Wall Street, Davidson taught at Booth for 41 years. As dean from 1969 to 1974, he led efforts to improve the school’s facilities and increase the number of endowed professorships. Davidson was among the first advocates of focusing accounting on the value of information, ideas, and fair values that do not appear on the balance sheet. As a result of developments stemming from his work, companies now use some of these factors, including many controversial fair values, when presenting their accounts. In a 1971 article about the influence of the University of Chicago, the New York Times noted that Davidson was “sometimes called the nation’s No. 1 accountant.”

Richard N. Rosett Is Named the 11th Dean of Booth
A passionate advocate of free markets, property rights, and limited government, Rosett joined the University of Chicago faculty in 1974 as dean and professor of business economics. He served as dean until 1982. He also served as a director of the National Bureau of Economic Research, as a board member of several industrial and financial firms, and as founder and president of the US Business School in Prague. In 1982, he received the Wilbur Lucius Cross Medal from the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association. Rosett passed away in 2009. In his obituary, his family noted Rosett was “endlessly curious about all things both great and small, and seized every chance to share that curiosity.”

George P. Shultz Is Appointed the 60th US Secretary of State
Shultz, who joined the Booth faculty in 1957 and was dean from 1962 to 1969, served on president Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Council of Economic Advisers and held three cabinet-level posts in the Nixon administration. As secretary of state, he played a key role in the Reagan administration’s efforts to promote peace between Israel and its neighbors and resolve the Cold War. In January 1989, Shultz was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.

John P. Gould, MBA ’63, PhD, ’66, Becomes the 12th Dean of Booth
Gould became dean after 18 years on the Chicago Booth faculty and a stint as special assistant to US secretary of state and former Booth dean himself, George Shultz. Under his leadership at Booth, the school began construction on what would become Gleacher Center—a $44 million facility in downtown Chicago to house the school’s Evening, Weekend, and Executive MBA Programs. The school also rose to No. 2 in Businessweek’s annual ranking of business schools. Currently the Steven G. Rothmeier Distinguished Service Professor of Economics Emeritus, Gould has been called to testify in many court cases, and his research has been widely published. Gould served as dean from 1983 to 1993.

Booth Expands Its Academic Offerings to Europe
Today, the Robert Rothman, ’77, London Campus in the heart of London’s business district serves as a hub to build on Booth’s commitment to facilitate world-class business education, leadership insights, and partnerships in London and throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. But our official presence in the region can be traced to 1993 when, in June of that year, Booth and Argentaria, a banking and financial services company in Spain, announced the launch of the International Executive MBA Program, which was based in Barcelona. One year later, the first cohort of international Executive MBA Program students began classes at the new campus in Barcelona. The school relocated to London in 2005.

Robert S. Hamada Is Named the 13th Dean of Booth
Hamada, who served as dean from 1993 to 2001, played a critical role in expanding Booth’s global reach, establishing campuses in Barcelona and Singapore, and launching an international MBA program at the Hyde Park campus. He also built the foundation for a strong alumni network and raised $111 million toward the school’s capital campaign, which included financing for a new campus in Hyde Park. An internationally known authority on finance, Hamada joined the faculty in 1966 and is now the Edward Eagle Brown Distinguished Service Professor of Finance Emeritus. In addition to serving as dean of Booth, Hamada was the deputy dean for the faculty from 1985 to 1990, and the director of the Center of Research for Security Prices (CRSP) from 1980 to 1985.

The Downtown Chicago Campus Opens
Nearly 100 years ago, the site of what is today called Gleacher Center looked entirely different. It was a warehouse that served as a storage facility for Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett, and Co. At the time, the 14-story, 900,000-square-foot structure was the country’s largest warehouse that stored hardware only. That building is gone, replaced by a state-of-the-art facility that houses our Evening MBA and Weekend MBA Programs, as well as Executive Education offerings, administrative offices, and events. The building opened in 1994. Two years later, a generous gift from Eric Gleacher, ’67, led to the facility being renamed Gleacher Center.

Booth Expands into Southeast Asia
When Booth established a presence in Singapore in 2000, it became the world’s first business school with permanent campuses on three continents: North America, Europe, and Asia. Our campus was located in the historic House of Tan Yeok Nee. Renovations began in 1999 to restore and modernize the then 115-year-old mansion. Jack Wadsworth, ’63, then chairman of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Asia Limited and chairman of the W.L.S. Spencer Foundation, and his wife, Bette Sue Pendery-Wadsworth, helped defray the cost. The school moved its Executive MBA Program from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2014, and the lease on the House of Tan Yeok Nee expired in 2015.

Edward A. "Ted" Snyder Becomes the 14th Dean of Booth
Under Snyder’s leadership, the school’s global footprint grew significantly, with a planned campus expansion in Singapore, a new campus in London, and a key role in UChicago’s Center in China. He also oversaw the opening of the Charles M. Harper Center in Hyde Park, recruited key leading faculty, and nearly doubled the number of endowed professorships. During Snyder’s tenure, David Booth, ’71, made an unprecedented gift valued at $300 million, and the school was renamed in his honor.

Worldwide Booth Night (Now Global Booth Day) Begins
Each year, Chicago Booth alumni and students gather on the same day at in-person and virtual events around the world to celebrate their common connection and show their Booth pride. Launched by a pair of Booth students in 2001, Worldwide Booth Night—now Global Booth Day—brings together Boothies in cities across the globe for faculty talks, happy hours, art tours, and more.

The Charles M. Harper Center in Chicago Opens
Booth’s global headquarters is a one-of-a-kind building that offers an unmatched level of amenities and resources. Designed by world-renowned architect Rafael Vinõly, Harper Center is located in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in the heart of the University of Chicago campus. The design of the 415,000-square-foot building is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s famed Robie House and the university’s iconic Rockefeller Chapel, each across the street from Harper Center. The soaring atrium in the middle of the building is a favorite gathering space, and the building is home to an outstanding contemporary art collection with works by more than 120 artists.

Booth Opens First Campus in London
Booth expanded its global footprint to Europe in 1993 by launching the Executive MBA Program in Barcelona, but it wasn’t until 2005 that the European program relocated to London. “The GSB belongs in Europe’s business center,” said Edward Snyder, AM ’78, PhD ’84 (Economics), who was dean of the school at the time. “London is home to 86 corporate headquarters, and it’s no accident that business leaders rank London as the top European city in which to conduct business.” The state-of-the-art campus was located at Woolgate Exchange in the heart of the city’s financial district, making Booth the first American business school with a permanent campus in the City of London.

Randall S. Kroszner Begins His Service as a Governor of the Federal Reserve System
In his three years with the Federal Reserve, Kroszner took a leading role in developing responses to the financial crisis and in undertaking new initiatives to improve consumer protection and disclosure, including rules related to home mortgages and credit cards. From 2001 to 2003, Kroszner served on president George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, where he helped formulate policy on responses to corporate governance scandals, government-sponsored enterprise reform, pension reform, terrorism risk insurance, tax reform, currency crisis management, sovereign debt restructuring, the role of the International Monetary Fund, and international trade and development. At Booth, he is the Norman R. Bobins Professor of Economics.

The Business School Receives an Unprecedented Gift from David Booth, ’71. The School Is Renamed.
When David Booth gave a gift valued at $300 million to the business school in 2008, it was the largest gift in the history of the University of Chicago. It was also the largest gift ever given to any business school in the world. An extraordinary expression of support, the gift has been transformative in building and sustaining Chicago Booth’s position as the leading academic business school in the nation. At the time of the gift announcement, Booth said it was a gesture of gratitude for what the school had given him. In recognition of Booth’s historic gift, the school was renamed the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Austan D. Goolsbee Is Appointed the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
An expert in tax policy, technology, and the economy, Goolsbee played a key role in guiding the Obama administration’s response to the economic crisis. “Over the past several years, he has helped steer our country out of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” Obama said in 2011, when Goolsbee left his role as chairman to return to Booth. The Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at Booth, Goolsbee also served as staff director and chief economist for the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Among his many awards, Goolsbee was a Fulbright Scholar and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. In 2002, the World Economic Forum named him as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow.

Sunil Kumar Is Named the 15th Dean of Booth
Kumar joined Booth from Stanford’s business school, where he was senior associate dean for academic affairs. Under his leadership, the school expanded student scholarships and focused on recruiting faculty with diverse areas of expertise. He also established the Social Enterprise Initiative (now the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation) and the Harry L. Davis Center for Leadership and expanded the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He left Booth in 2016 to serve as provost of Johns Hopkins University.

Booth Becomes a Hub for Social Sector Innovation
The Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation—launched by Booth in 2012 as the Social Enterprise Initiative—is a destination for those committed to helping solve complex social and environmental problems. The Rustandy Center leads the charge to build a better world through launching new social impact ventures, funding faculty research, and expanding opportunities at Booth’s Asia campus.

Raghuram G. Rajan Starts His Tenure as the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
When Rajan took over the Reserve Bank of India in 2013, India’s economy was on fragile footing. During his three-year term, Rajan, who was the twenty-third person to hold the position, was credited with “reigning in double-digit inflation and winning back the confidence of international investors,” according to the New York Times. In 2014, he was named Euromoney's Central Bank Governor of the Year. A former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, Rajan was one of just a few economists who saw the 2008–09 global recession coming. He has received many accolades and awards, including the inaugural Fischer Black Prize, the Infosys Prize in Social Sciences, and the Deutsche Bank Prize for Financial Economics.

Reconnect Begins
In May 2013, Booth combined class reunions, Alumni Celebration, and Management Conference into a single, weekend-long program of activities. Designed to foster alumni connections and learning, the inaugural Reconnect featured a thought-provoking debate on the future of central bank policies along with a variety of opportunities to meet new people and come together with old friends. Today, Reconnect brings alumni from all over the world to Chicago each spring.

The Asia Campus Relocates from Singapore to Hong Kong
After 13 years in Singapore, Booth moved its Executive MBA Program Asia to Hong Kong in an effort to expand and strengthen the school’s presence across the region. “Thanks to the success of our Asia program, Chicago Booth has built great momentum in Southeast Asia and developed a strong alumni base in the region,” said Sunil Kumar, who was the school’s dean at the time. “Expanding into Hong Kong allows us to have impact on future leaders in business and build new corporate relationships in North Asia as well, complementing our activities.” The government allocated land for the new Booth campus in historic Mount Davis, but for the first several years classes were held in a temporary location.

Madhav V. Rajan Becomes the 16th Dean of Booth
A renowned scholar in management accounting, Rajan has deepened Booth’s relationship with the University of Chicago, launching the popular Business Economics track at the College and an accelerated JD/MBA with the Law School, and growing the MBA/MPCS with the Department of Computer Science. Under Rajan’s leadership since 2017, the school has expanded its global footprint across Asia and EMEA, completing the Hong Kong campus and opening a modern new campus in London. Also during this period, the school has broadened investment in newer areas of research with the launch of the Center for Applied Artificial Intelligence and the Healthcare Initiative. In addition, Booth has doubled MBA scholarship funding and extended it across all MBA programs.