The Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management is the graduate business school of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1969, Owen offers six degrees: a standard 2-year Master of Business Administration (MBA), an Executive MBA, Master of Finance, Master of Accountancy, Master of Accountancy-Valuation, and Master of Management in Health Care, as well as a variety of joint professional and MBA degree programs. Owen also offers non-degree programs for undergraduates and professionals. The student to faculty ratio is about 9 to 1, with 577 students and 49 full-time faculty members. The school is named for Ralph “Peck” Owen and his wife, Lulu Hampton Owen. Ralph Owen, a Vanderbilt alumnus (’28), was a founder of Equitable Securities Corporation in Nashville, and he became the chairman of the American Express Company.

History

In 1881, Vanderbilt's Board of Trust submitted its first proposal for a business education program, calling it the Commercial College Department. However, it wasn't until the mid-1950s that a business administration program was offered in the Department of Economics. The Board of Trust passed the school's founding resolution on May 5, 1967, and operations as the Graduate School of Management began in September 1969 with twelve faculty members and six students. Classes met in a renovated funeral home, a gift from Mr. and Mrs. David K. Wilson. The building was named Alexander Hall in honor of Henry Clay Alexander, a Vanderbilt alum and president of J.P. Morgan. It was under Dean Samuel B. Richmond, that the school was named for Ralph and Lulu Owen. Following the deaths of both Mr. and Mrs. Owen, their estates gave $33.5 million to The Owen School, said to be the largest gift to a U.S. business school at that time. That sum raised the total of their gifts to more than $62 million. The Owen School moved from Alexander Hall to Management Hall in 1982. Management Hall is connected to Mechanical Engineering Hall, which is home to the Executive MBA program. Management Hall also houses the Walker Library collection of more than 50,000 volumes, more than 900 periodical titles, reference works, and electronic databases. The library was named in honor of Anne Marie and Thomas B. Walker, Jr. At present, about 25% of the student body are international students, and 33% are women. Finance was the most popular area for Vanderbilt MBA students in 2007–8; 43 percent accepted jobs in that field. Eight percent of faculty members have owned a business. In July 2023, Thomas Steenburgh became the Ralph Owen Dean and Professor of Marketing. He began his academic career at Harvard Business School.

Programs

The Owen Graduate School of Management is accredited by the AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) and is a full member of the Executive MBA Council (EMBAC). The Owen Graduate School's programs are organized by students' career progression and interest. The classifications are: Young Professional Programs, Early Career Programs, Executive Programs, and Health Care Programs.

Rankings and recognition

In 2024, Owen was ranked #20 in U.S. News & World Report rankings. Bloomberg Businessweek ranked the full-time MBA program #34 in 2015 and the Executive MBA #35 in 2014 In 2017 the Financial Times (US) ranked the MBA as #40 and the Executive MBA at #15. Most recently, the Economist "Which MBA?" ranked the MBA program at #26. The Owen School was one of two winners of the 2008 TeamMBA Award, which was presented by the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). Bruce Cooil, Dean Samuel B. and Evelyn R. Richmond Professor of Management, was awarded the 2007 Marketing Science Institute/H. Paul Root Award. Michael A. Lapré, E. Bronson Ingram Professor in Operations Management, has received the Shingo Research Prize. Professor Nancy Hyer and Urban Wemmerlov's book Reorganizing the Factory: Competing through Cellular Manufacturing, won the 2003 Shingo Prize for Research in Manufacturing

Centers

Alumni

Academia

Business

Government