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History

Founded with a mission

The Yale School of Management was founded to advance a vision of a better way to educate leaders—purposeful, entrepreneurial, multisectoral, with a focus on how leaders can both advance organizational objectives and contribute to society. The school has evolved and grown in the ensuing decades, while keeping its mission as a guiding light. Since opening its doors in 1976, Yale SOM has produced thousands of alumni who act out this vision in organizations large and small across countries, industries, and sectors.

1971

The University received a bequest from the estate of Frederick W. Beinecke, PhB 1909, for the creation of a program in management. Two years later, the Yale Corporation approved the creation of a School of Organization and Management, which would confer a master’s degree in public and private management (MPPM). The first class arrived in the fall of 1976.

The new school offered a two-year program designed to train managers who could be effective in the business, government, and nonprofit sectors, and who would have the skills, understanding, and perspective to move among those sectors effectively. “Business and government are growing more interrelated,” an early admissions catalog said, “requiring effective managers in each sector, public and private, to understand in depth the goals and operations of the other.”

1994

The school changed its name to the Yale School of Management. 

1999

Yale SOM began offering a master of business administration (MBA) degree, while maintaining its multi-sectoral focus.

2005

The school introduced an executive MBA program with a focus on healthcare leadership.

2006

The school introduced an integrated core curriculum, designed to train leaders for the cross-functional environment of contemporary organizations. In multi­disciplinary, team-taught core courses, students learn to draw on a broad range of information, tools, and skills to develop creative solutions and make strategic decisions.

2012

Yale SOM convened the Global Network for Advanced Management, a network of business schools from both developed and developing economies that act together to advance understanding of global business. In the same year, the school introduced the Master of Advanced Management program, a one-year program in advanced leadership and management for those who have earned or are earning an MBA or equivalent degree from a Global Network school.

2014

In January 2014 the school moved into Edward P. Evans Hall, an entirely new campus designed to build on the school’s strengths in innovation, curriculum, community, and global engagement. Also in 2014, the school expanded its executive MBA program to include three focus areas: asset management, healthcare, and sustainability.

2017

The school created the one-year Master of Management Studies degree and the Systemic Risk track of the MMS, which trains early- and mid-career employees of central banks and other major regulatory agencies with a mandate to manage systemic risk.

2018

The school created the Global Business and Society track of the MMS, open to those who have earned or are earning a master’s degree in management or equivalent degree from member schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management.

2020

The school created the Asset Management track of the MMS, which gives early-career students a deep understanding of the application of data science and quantitative techniques to investment decisions, while emphasizing fiduciary responsibility, ethics, and investment performance.

The school also announced the launch of The Broad Center at the Yale School of Management, which aims to strengthen the leadership of major public school districts. The Broad Center is home to the Public Education Management track of the MMS and the Fellowship for Public Education Leadership. These rigorous, tuition-free programs are driven by The Broad Center’s commitment to equity and excellence and fit squarely with the distinctive mission of Yale SOM to educate leaders for business and society.

2023

The school announced the expansion of its executive MBA program, giving students the option to pursue general management or one of three areas of focus: asset management, healthcare, or sustainability.

The school also created the Technology Management track of the MMS, which will give graduates of Yale’s School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) and other technical programs a strong foundation in business and leadership skills while deepening their expertise in technical fields. 

PDF Cover of The Birth of the School

Birth of the School

Reflections on the Founding of the Yale School of Management

At SOM Alumni Weekend in 1983, William S. Beinecke spoke to the Yale SOM Charter Class of 1978. A businessman and philanthropist who served on the Yale Corporation for many years and helped shape many parts of the University, Mr. Beinecke was a driving force behind the creation of the School. In his talk to the Charter Class, he described with an insider’s perspective the process of discussion and debate, over two decades, that led to the founding of the Yale School of Organization and Management, now known as the Yale School of Management. 

Read: The Birth of the School

Deans

William H. Donaldson 1975-1980
Geoffrey Hazard, Jr., Acting Dean 1980-1981
Burton G. Malkiel 1981-1987
Merton J. Peck, Acting Dean 1987-1988
Michael E. Levine 1988-1992
Paul MacAvoy 1992-1994
Stanley J. Garstka, Acting Dean 1994-1995
Jeffrey E. Garten 1995-2005
Joel M. Podolny 2005-2008
Sharon M. Oster 2008-2011
Edward A. Snyder
(Anjani Jain, Acting Dean, 2017-2018)
2011-2019
Kerwin K. Charles 2019-