Owen Graduate School of Management - History

History

Vanderbilt University Owen Graduate School of Management has been in operation since 1969, but the university’s first proposal for a business education program came from its Board of Trust (BOT) in 1881. They called it the Commercial College Department. No program was established then, however, and it was the mid-1950s before a program of business administration was offered in the Department of Economics. With the economic growth in Nashville and Middle Tennessee at that time, local businessmen, many of whom were Vanderbilt alumni and BOT members, recognized the need for a formal business education program to train leaders for the area. They were concerned that too many aspiring young businessmen would attend schools in other parts of the country and then remain in those regions.

Progress was slow in seeing the need fulfilled; the idea was conceived during the administration of Chancellor Harvie Branscomb (1946–63) but did not come to fruition until the administration of Chancellor Alexander Heard (1963–82). The BOT 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; he was one of those concerned Nashville businessmen, a Vanderbilt alum (’41), and a Vanderbilt BOT member. The building was named Alexander Hall in honor of Henry Clay Alexander, a Vanderbilt alum (’23), a Vanderbilt BOT member, and president of J.P. Morgan.

The first dean, Igor Ansoff, held master’s degrees in engineering and in mathematics and physics from the Stevens Institute of Technology; his PhD from Brown University was in applied mathematics. He had most recently been a professor of industrial administration at Carnegie-Mellon but previously worked at Lockheed, where his specialty was strategies of diversification. He had also written and published works on business education and business management.

It was under the leadership of Dean Samuel B. Richmond, a statistician from Columbia University, who had been acting dean of Columbia Graduate School, that the school was named for Ralph and Lulu Owen (1977). In 1930, two years after graduating from Vanderbilt University, Ralph Owen became a founding member of Equitable Securities Corporation in Nashville. By 1950, the firm was recognized as the second largest investment banking firm in the United States. Equitable purchased controlling interest in American Express in 1949 and 1950, and Owen became American Express chairman (1960–68). 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 outgrew Alexander Hall, and its new home was completed in 1982. Management Hall is connected to a historic building, Mechanical Engineering Hall, which encloses a central courtyard and serves as home to the Executive MBA program. Mechanical, built in 1888, was the first building in Tennessee designed for the teaching of engineering.

James W. Bradford, the Owen School’s Dean from 2005 to 2013, began teaching management classes at The Owen School in 2002 and became acting dean in the summer of 2004. On March 2005 he was appointed dean; he is also the Ralph Owen Professor for the Practice of Management. He brought experience from his positions as president and CEO of United Glass Corporation and of AFG Industries, Inc., both flat glass manufacturers, and his 11-year practice of law. His bachelor’s degree in political science is from the University of Florida and his law degree is from Vanderbilt Law School. In 1997 he fulfilled requirements of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School. During his time as Dean, he hired seventeen new professors, and he was responsible for establishing the Health Care MBA, the MS in Finance, Master of Accountancy programs, and Accelerator.

From the beginning of the planning for what became The Owen School, the goal was to create a graduate business school of “the highest professional quality” with a two-year program leading to an MBA. Most students in the early years were young men from Tennessee and surrounding states, fulfilling the hopes of businessmen to keep talented people in the area, but by 2008, men and women from across the United States and from international locales had attended The Owen School. At present about 25 percent are international students, and 33 percent are women. Recruiters from American and international companies have sought out the students, and the school has expanded its offerings to specialized master’s degrees (in health care, finance, and accountancy), an Executive MBA program, and an Executive Development program.