The UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School is the business school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a public university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Founded in 1919, the school was renamed to its current name in 1991 in honor of Mary Lily Kenan and her husband, Henry Flagler.
The school offers programs for granting a bachelor of science in business administration, a master of business administration, a master of science in management, an executive MBA, a master of accounting, a doctor of philosophy, a business certificate, and executive education programs. It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.
Contents
History
The school was established in 1919 as the Department of Commerce of the College of Arts of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
In 1991, Frank Kenan continued his family’s legacy of supporting UNC by giving $10 million toward a new Business School building. The university changed its business school's name to Kenan–Flagler Business School in honor of Mary Lily Kenan and her husband, Henry Morrison Flagler.
On June 13, 2023, Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz appointed Mary Margaret Frank as the dean of the UNC Kenan–Flagler Business School, effective August 15, 2023.
Rankings
MBA Full-time Program Rankings (additional to chart)
U.S. News & World Report - 2026
8th (tie) in undergraduate business
21st in full-time MBA programs
Poets&Quants - 2026
21st in full-time MBA programs
Beyond Grey Pinstripes (Aspen Institute) - 2012
7th in the United States
Princeton Review and Entrepreneur - 2015
11th for graduate programs in entrepreneurship
Executive MBA
The Wall Street Journal ranked the Weekend Program: 10th in 2010
Bloomberg BusinessWeek for the Weekend Program: 11th in 2004
Financial Times ranked OneMBA: 29th in 2016
Online MBA
The U.S. News & World Report ranked the Online MBA 3rd in 2026
MAC Program (Master of Accounting)
Public of Accounting Report: 7th in 2009
Executive Development (Non-Degree Programs)
Financial Times: 9th for custom programs
People
Faculty
Robert S. Adler, Consumer Advocate
Howard Aldrich, Sociologist
Paolo Fulghieri, Financial Economist
Rajdeep Grewal
James H. Johnson Jr.
Arne L. Kalleberg, Sociologist
Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, expert on global marketing
Valarie Zeithaml, Services marketing pioneer; developer of SERVQUAL
Alumni
Lee Ainslie, MBA, Founder and CEO of Maverick Capital (a $10B long/short hedge fund)
John A. Allison IV, Chairman and Former CEO of BB&T (BSBA at UNC Kenan–Flagler) and current Director of Moelis & Company
Erskine Bowles (BSBA '67), former president, University of North Carolina System; former White House Chief of Staff; former head of Small Business Administration; former United Nations deputy envoy for tsunami relief
Michele Buck, MBA '87, CEO of The Hershey Company
Hubert C. Hegtvedt, U.S. Air Force Major General
Jason Kilar, Co-founder and former CEO, Hulu
Hugh McColl Jr. (BSBA '57), Former Chairman and CEO, Bank of America Corporation
Gary Parr (BSBA '79), Deputy Chairman, Lazard Frères & Co.
Mercer Reynolds: Businessman, finance chair of George W. Bush's Presidential campaign.
Julian Robertson (BSBA '55), Chairman, Tiger Management
David N. Senty, U.S. Air Force Major General
G. Smedes York, MBA 1968, 33rd Mayor of Raleigh 1979-1983, Chairman of York Properties, Inc.