Thunderbird School of Global Management

Thunderbird School of Global Management
Established	1946
Type	Private business school
Endowment	$18.8 million
President	Larry E. Penley
Academic staff	47
Students	509 Full time 126 Executive MBA
Location	Glendale, AZ, USA
Website	www.thunderbird.edu

Thunderbird School of Global Management is a private business school whose main campus is located in Glendale, Arizona. It was founded in 1946 by retired U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Barton Kyle Yount (1884–1949).

The school received regional accreditation in 1969 from the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA). In 1994, it was accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

History

2006 USGS Aerial Photograph

After World War II, U.S. Army Air Forces Lieutenant General Barton Kyle Yount acquired a former military airbase, Thunderbird Field, whose property was valued at US$407,000, for a token amount on the condition that it be used as a school for at least ten years. (Postwar policy allowed government property to be purchased at great discounts if intended for educational use.) A 1946 congressional investigation into the land sale exonerated Yount of any wrongdoing.

With Yount as its first president, the school was chartered on April 8, 1946 as the American Institute for Foreign Trade (a nonprofit corporation). Classes began on October 1, 1946, and the first class of 234 students graduated on June 14, 1947. The school offered only one degree, a Bachelor of Foreign Trade (BFT), in a curriculum which originally emphasized the Spanish and Portuguese languages and Latin American business culture. (Observing the difficulties faced by Americans doing business overseas, Yount sought to offer a course of studies that would correct their shortcomings.)

Although the BFT was billed as a four-year degree, the actual course of studies required two years. Students were expected to bring in transfer credits amounting to the first two years.

The earliest classes were overwhelmingly men studying under the G.I. Bill. (In 1951 there were 10 female students, four of them World War II veterans). About half the students were married men, many of whom brought their families. (Wives were encouraged to enroll in language classes.) In those days the students were all American citizens. The first foreign students enrolled in 1958, and their proportion steadily increased until 9-11, reaching some 60% of the student body.

After Yount's death in 1949, a "Barton Kyle Yount Award" was created to honor the best student in the graduating class. Its first recipient (in 1950) was Robert Frohse, later executive director of the Hearst Corporation.

In 1953, the school logo (which had been affixed to several repurposed aircraft hangars) allegedly inspired the name of the U.S. Air Force demonstration flight team, the Thunderbirds.

In 1965, the U.S. Department of Commerce awarded the school the President's "E" Certificate for Export Service (later upgraded to an "E-star" ranking). A small flag signifying this flies in front of the school.

Marketing professor Edwin H. Coleman (formerly of Upjohn; taught 1962–1966) began an "Interad" class, in which students carry out projects on behalf of real companies, and are judged by their executives. It is now one of Thunderbird's most sought-after classes.

Under the presidency of Arthur L. Peterson (served 1966-69), Thunderbird received regional accreditation; the size of the student body doubled from an average of 250-300 in the early years, to 503 in 1967; several significant building projects were undertaken, including a library; the name of the school was changed to the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management; and the BFT was phased out in favor of a Master of International Management (MIM) degree. A pilot, Peterson was known for landing his plane on Thunderbird field.

William Voris (served 1971–1989) continued many of the same trends. Academically, professorial qualifications improved, and the school adopted a "tripartite" curriculum consisting of business, international studies, and language. An Arabist, Voris established overseas study programs in several foreign countries—including cooperative agreements with the Tecnológico de Monterrey (ITESM) and the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade (1980)—and again changed the name of the school (replacing "Thunderbird" with "American") on the grounds that "Thunderbird" did not always translate well into other languages. He also organized the school's first executive education programs.

Yount's grandson, Barton Kyle "Buzz" Yount III, attended the school in 1970-71.

The Thunderbird Hot Air Balloon Classic was first held in 1975, on the Thunderbird campus itself (which had been designed as an airfield). The event became an annual festival featuring student-run food-booths and the like. It was moved to the Glendale Airport in 1989 and then, in 1991, to Scottsdale's Westworld.

Originally unique, Thunderbird began to encounter direct competition from other international business programs in the 1980s. In response the school's marketing literature emphasized the "Thunderbird mystique" (referring to the school's tripartite curriculum and formidable alumni network) and "a difference of degree" (the MIM over the traditional MBA). By the 2000s, however, most business schools had acquired a global focus. Thunderbird, surrendering to the trend, converted its flagship degree into an MBA in International (later Global) Management.

The 1990s and 2000s brought financial upheaval as MBA programs in general fell out of favor during the internet bubble, and foreign student enrollment plummeted after 9-11. Faculty cuts occurred in 2001 and 2004; student enrollment dropped to a low of 700 in 2003, down from an average of 1,500 during the 1990s. Speculation to the effect that the school would close, or be taken over by another institution, was rife. In 2004, an unprecedented pledge of $60 million (by alumnus Sam Garvin and his wife Rita) seemed to forestall these possibilities, and the name of the school was accordingly changed to "the Garvin School of International Management"--a change reverted when Garvin, who objected to plans to apply the funds to the school's operating deficits, reneged on his donation.

In 1994, the AACSB reversed a longstanding policy which made "mixed" programs such as Thunderbird's ineligible for accreditation. Thunderbird's was the first such program to be thus accredited.

During the 1990s, the school began publishing the Thunderbird International Business Review, a bimonthly academic journal.

Since 2004, Thunderbird sponsored "Project Artemis," aimed at developing entrepreneurial skills among Afghan women. In addition, partnerships with investment bank Goldman Sachs, the InterAmerican Development Bank, the U.S. Dept. of State, mining company Freeport McMoRan and the Australian Government helped Thunderbird train hundreds of women entrepreneurs in Pakistan, Jordan, and Latin America.

In August 2004, Angel Cabrera, former dean of IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, became the youngest (and first foreign-born) president of the School, succeeding Roy A. Herberger, Jr. Under his leadership the School underwent a major operational and financial restructuring and launched various new programs. However, efforts to diversify revenue sources increased costs faster than revenues. Cabrera stepped down in 2012, to be succeeded briefly by former U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett (as interim president, for about six months), then by Larry Edward Penley (served 2012-present), previously president of Colorado State University.

In 2013, Thunderbird announced plans to partner with Laureate Education, Inc., to expand its presence around the world, reaffirming its position as the world’s top institution for international business education.

Name Changes

Since its founding, the school has consistently been known as Thunderbird, a nickname for "Thunderbird Field 1"—the official name given to the Army Air Corps base on which Thunderbird's school campus was built. Since 1946, Thunderbird's official name has changed several times as shown below. Popular acronyms for each name are shown in parentheses.

1946–1968: The American Institute for Foreign Trade (AIFT)

1968–1973: Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management (TGSIM)

1973–1997: The American Graduate School of International Management (AGSIM)

1997–2004: Thunderbird, the American Graduate School of International Management

2004–2007: Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management

2007-current: Thunderbird School of Global Management

Academics

Programs

Today (as of 2013), Thunderbird's main degree is the MBA in Global Management. Students may select concentrations in global finance, marketing, management, and/or development. The curriculum evolved from that of the Master of International Management (MIM) degree, offered between 1971 and 2001.

In addition, Thunderbird offers other full-time graduate programs:

• Master of Science in Global Management. Intended for students who lack business education or experience.

• Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management. Oriented towards the management of public, international and social organizations.

• Master of Science in Global Finance or Global Marketing. For students interested in getting a specialized degree in one of these management disciplines.

• Master of Global Management: Billed as a post-MBA degree; also granted to dual-degree students.

Before Thunderbird switched to the MBA, it entered into several dual-degree agreements whereby students could earn an MBA from another institution, and the MIM from Thunderbird. After the switch, it continued to award the MIM to dual-degree students on the basis of these agreements, but has now phased out the MIM in favor of the three non-MBA options listed above.

Thunderbird also offers the following degrees:

• Online Global MBA: A distance-learning MBA with a residency requirement.

• Executive MBA in Global Management. A modular EMBA program. Study takes place in Arizona and multiple residence weeks abroad.

Thunderbird Online - Executive Certificates, Foundations for Global Business, Certificate in Global Oil & Gas Management

Executive Certificates available in:

Global Business Essentials

Global Corporate Social Responsibility

Global Finance

Global Leadership

Global Marketing

Global Management

Global Negotiations

International Credit & Trade Finance

Rankings

School rankings (overall)

With its student body of less than 600 full-time students and fewer than than 400 part-time students, Thunderbird can be viewed as a small school, or as a huge graduate department. The fact that it is unaffiliated with a larger university (and thus forgoes the resources and access to undergraduate teaching and other resources that such an affiliation would provide) has required Thunderbird to be aggressive with its recruitment efforts since it doesn't have a built-in undergraduate feeder. The school tends to do well in rankings which specifically evaluate programs in international business, but less well in general MBA measures. Business Week, for example, does not currently (2013) rank Thunderbird in its overall B-school rankings, but awarded Thunderbird the #1 spot in the "international business" category when it launched this specialty program ranking in 2013. Recently, Thunderbird dropped off the Financial Times' top 100 B-schools list, which resulted in the school being ineligible to be considered for the publication's international business specialty ranking. Thunderbird continues to hold the US News & World Report's #1 specialty program ranking for international business, which it has been awarded for 18 consecutive years (2013), however it rates the overall MBA program as "second tier".

Thunderbird maintains an up-to-date webpage that features all of its current rankings at www.thunderbird.edu/rankings.

Thunderbird Research Centers (Centers of Excellence)

Thunderbird has 7 main research, knowledge and information centers known collectively as the Thunderbird Centers for Excellence.

• Center for Global Energy Studies
• Garvin Center for the Cultures & Languages of Global Management
• Global Financial Services Center
• Najafi Global Mindset Institute
• Lincoln Center for Ethics In International Management
• Thunderbird Global Private Equity Center
• Walker Center for Global Entrepreneurship

List of Thunderbird presidents

• Barton Kyle Yount (1947–49)
• William Lytle Schurz (1949-52[?])
• Ed Juliber (1952–53)
• Carl Sauer (1953–66)
• Arthur L. Peterson (1966–69)
• Robert F. Delaney (1970–71)
• William Voris (1971–89)
• Roy A. Herberger (1989–2004)
• Angel Cabrera (2004–2012)
• Barbara Barrett, (Apr - Nov 2012)
• Larry E. Penley (current)

Notable alumni

Thunderbird has more than 40,000 alumni and 150 alumni chapters in 141 countries throughout the world.

• Walid Chammah, '77, Co-President, Morgan Stanley
• Bob Dudley, '79, Chief Executive Officer, BP
• Luis Alberto Moreno, '77, President, Inter-American Development Bank and former Colombian Ambassador to the United States
• William D. Perez, ’70, CEO, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company
• Philip Reeker, '91, U.S. Ambassador to Macedonia
• Gordon Smith, '96, CEO, Chase Card Services
• Don Novello, '65, American writer, film director, producer, actor, singer, and comedian
• R. Niels Marquardt, '80, U.S. Ambassador to Madagascar

See also

• List of United States graduate business school rankings
• List of business schools in the United States
• International Masters of Business Administration

External links

• Thunderbird School of Global Management