The Thunderbird School of Global Management (or simply Thunderbird) is an affiliated school at Arizona State University, a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. It was founded in 1946 as an independent, private institution and acquired by Arizona State University in 2014. The school moved to ASU's Downtown Phoenix campus in 2018 from its original location at the former WWII USAAF Thunderbird Field, from which the school was named. The campus built a new $75 million building for the school in 2021.
Thunderbird is a unit of the Arizona State University Enterprise. Its programs are accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
As of 2018, the school had around 45,000 alumni, also referred to as "Thunderbirds” or "T-birds."
Contents
History
Founding as a private institution (1946–2014)
The school derives its name from Thunderbird Field No. 1, a decommissioned World War II-era United States Army Air Forces base, which served as its campus for more than 70 years.
The American Institute for Foreign Trade was founded by Lt. Gen. Barton Kyle Yount, a US Army Air Forces (AAF) officer who purchased the former Thunderbird Field from the War Assets Administration for one dollar, subject to the condition that the property be used for educational purposes for a minimum of 10 years. This led to short-lived controversy as journalists questioned the propriety of the transaction. As head of the Army Air Training Command, Yount had been recruited to the project by two AAF colonels, Finley Peter Dunne Jr. and W. Stouder Thompson, who considered that the United States was (in Dunne's words) "notoriously short of personnel trained for foreign trade." Yount agreed that "the young men who were going to foreign countries to represent American business were, in many cases, entirely untrained and unfit to represent their firms and their government." The school was chartered as a nonprofit Arizona corporation on April 8, 1946. Over the next six months, Yount and Dunne (Thompson having departed the project) prepared the Glendale location, arranged financing, remodeled the physical plant (which included several airplane hangars and a control tower), and recruited faculty and students. Students were required to be "at least twenty years of age who, through study in college or the armed forces, have completed at least two years above high school, or the equivalent thereof." This last provision was interpreted to allow military or work experience to substitute for formal university study.
Classes officially began on October 1, 1946, with 285 students and 18 faculty members. (Early catalogues give these figures as 296 and 22, respectively.) 98% of the students attended on the G.I. Bill (provision was also made for the "instruction of wives"). The first certificates were awarded June 14, 1947. The program mixed business courses with instruction in Spanish or Portuguese languages and Latin American culture, for a "tripartite curriculum" consisting of international commerce, languages, and area studies. Course offerings soon expanded to include French language and Western European and "Far Eastern" area studies. In 1951, Thunderbird began granting the Bachelor of Foreign Trade to students who already possessed undergraduate degrees, or at least three years of coursework, while the others continued to be awarded certificates. Thunderbird thus became one of the first tertiary institutions to offer international business degrees.
As part of Arizona State University (2014–present)
Negotiations with ASU president Michael M. Crow concluded within months, with the new plan winning swift approval from both boards as well as the Higher Learning Commission. Under the plan, finalized in December 2014, ASU assumed Thunderbird's debts of $22 million, and received $20 million from Thunderbird's operating fund to stabilize its finances. ASU also acquired Thunderbird's Glendale campus (then estimated to be worth $20 million).
In 2015, ASU appointed Allen J. Morrison as CEO and Director General of Thunderbird. Since ASU already had an MBA program (the W. P. Carey School of Business), it was decided to phase out the Thunderbird MBA in favor of a Master of Global Management, a one-year program similar to the school's former Master of International Management degree (offered prior to 2001). Also, an undergraduate program (not offered since 1975) was recreated.
In 2018, ASU appointed Sanjeev Khagram as director general and dean of Thunderbird.
In October 2019, ASU and Thunderbird held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on Thunderbird's new global headquarters facility, adjacent to ASU's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law on the Downtown Phoenix campus. The first classes in the new building were held in the fall semester of 2021, when Thunderbird celebrated its 75th anniversary.
Name changes
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
Thunderbird presidents and directors general
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)
Ángel Cabrera (2004–2012)
Barbara Barrett, (Apr - Nov 2012)
Larry E. Penley (2012–2015)
Directors general (under ASU):
Allen J. Morrison (2015–2018)
Sanjeev Khagram (2018–2024)
Charla Griffy-Brown (2024–present)
Academics
Thunderbird's degrees have historically included the Bachelor of Foreign Trade (1951–1975), the Master of Foreign Trade / Master of International Management (1952–2001), an MBA in Global Management (2001–2016), and executive education programs. Since its acquisition by ASU, Thunderbird has revived the undergraduate program (the Bachelor of Global Management; its students are called "Underbirds"), phased out the MBA (which the Carey School already offered), and introduced the Master of Global Management, a non-MBA graduate degree with a number of formal concentrations. Degrees currently offered include:
Undergraduate degrees:
Bachelor of Global Management
Bachelor of Science in International Trade (with a quantitative focus)
Online Bachelor of Global Management
Online Bachelor of Science in International Trade
Two tracks are offered: one consisting of international business, language, and culture; and another which omits language (including all online programs).
Graduate degrees:
Accelerated Masters (allowing Thunderbird undergraduates to complete a master's degree in one further year)
Master of Global Management (the flagship degree)
Master of Leadership and Management
Executive Master of Global Management
Executive Master of Global Management: Space Leadership, Business, and Policy
Executive Master of Arts in Global Affairs and Management
Rankings
Forbes ranked Thunderbird as the 54th best business school in the U.S. in 2011, and a 2012 report released by Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Thunderbird as the top international business program. Thunderbird was also ranked as the 5th most diverse school out of 82 schools surveyed, based on student responses about students' country of origin, gender and ethnicity. In 2013, The Financial Times ranked Thunderbird's executive education program ninth overall based on corporate client feedback to The Financial Times. Also in 2013, The Economist released ratings for online programs and gave Thunderbird a rating of "good", which was one step down from the publication's top rating of "excellent". In its 2014 rankings, published in 2013, U.S. News & World Report ranked Thunderbird as the best international business school in their annual rankings, marking the eighteenth consecutive year the school was named top international business program. In U.S. News & World Report's 2015 rankings, published in 2014, Thunderbird was ranked 85th for best business school, and second in the overall rankings for international business school.
According to a 2019 Times Higher Education/Wall Street Journal report, Thunderbird was ranked number 1 in the world in Masters in Management programs for its specialized Masters in Global Management (MGM) degree.
Campuses
The original Thunderbird campus was located on the former World War II airfield Thunderbird Field No. 1 in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. Built in 1941, the airfield was used to train pilots. The school has utilized the existing buildings on the airfield and many of the school's classrooms are located in the airfield's former barracks. Arizona Christian University is the new owner and occupant of Thunderbird's former campus in Glendale.
The airfield's air traffic control tower is still present on campus. Beginning in 2007, the tower underwent a restoration project at the urging of three Thunderbird students who raised $2.5 million for the project. The school was awarded the Ruth Bryne Historic Preservation Award by the city of Glendale for the renovation. The tower was occupied by the campus store, student lounges and a pub until the school relocated to Phoenix. Thunderbird's new building will feature a rooftop pub designed in the spirit of the iconic original.
In 2011, one of the then-70-year-old airplane hangars on campus was removed. The building, named the Thunderbird Activity Center by the school, had been used for special events and exams, but was determined to no longer meet safety standards following an inspection of the campus.
Thunderbird also has satellite Centers for Excellence in Dubai, UAE; Geneva, Switzerland; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Tokyo, Japan, among several others. The school currently has 15 worldwide campuses and has plans to open several new satellite Centers for Excellence (hub offices) in the next few years with a goal to have a global network of 20 satellite hubs by the year 2025. The hubs will support professional English education, recruiting, alumni and community engagement, and executive education. All the hubs will be connected to the global headquarters facility in downtown Phoenix. The goal is for the headquarters to function as a digital and physical space that will connect the school's global network of 45,000 alumni with students, faculty, and staff.
Other buildings on the original campus included the International Business Information Centre (IBIC), which was Thunderbird's library, and a dining hall for students. The school's campus also featured a Welcome Wall, which was built in 1992, and displayed greetings in different languages.
Notable alumni and faculty
Notable alumni
Walid Chammah, former chairman of Morgan Stanley
Joaquin Duato, CEO of Johnson & Johnson
Bob Dudley, retired CEO of BP
David Hu, IIG cofounder sentenced to jail for running a Ponzi scheme
Ramon Laguarta, CEO of PepsiCo
Luis Alberto Moreno, former Ambassador of Colombia to the United States and former president of the Inter-American Development Bank
Don Novello, comedian best known for his character Father Guido Sarducci
Sven Ombudstvedt, CEO of Norske Skog (Japan Campus of Foreign Universities)
Todd Rustman, business executive and writer
Michael Slobodchikoff, author, academic, and media analyst
Mark Smucker, CEO of The J.M. Smucker Company
Revathi Advaithi, CEO of Flex
Lee Abbamonte, the youngest American to visit all 193 United Nations member states, graduated in 2010
Christopher Campbell, former Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury
Halla Tómasdóttir, president of Iceland
Notable faculty
Stefan Michel, Swiss economist, Professor of Global Marketing (2003-2008)
Dan Quayle, 44th vice president of the United States, "distinguished visiting professor of international studies"