In 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.”
In 1994 the school changed its name to the Yale School of Management. In 1999 it began offering a master of business administration (MBA) degree, while maintaining its multi-sectoral focus.
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 a School
In 2005, the school introduced an executive MBA program with a focus on healthcare leadership.
In 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.
In 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.
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.
In 2017 the school created the one-year Master of Management Studies degree and the Systemic Risk track of the MMS, and in 2018 created the Global Business and Society track of the MMS.
Deans of the Yale School of Management
| 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- |
Mission and Degree Programs
The mission of the Yale School of Management is educating leaders for business and society.
Across its portfolio of degree programs, Yale SOM educates purposeful leaders who pursue their work with integrity; who are equipped to contribute to all sectors of society—public, private, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial; and who understand complexity within and among societies in an increasingly global world.
- The MBA program is built around a unique integrated core curriculum and characterized by connections to the rest of Yale and top business schools around the world through the Global Network for Advanced Management.
- The executive MBA program combines the MBA integrated core curriculum with advanced study in one of three areas at the nexus of business and society: asset management, healthcare, and sustainability.
- The Master of Advanced Management (MAM) program, a one-year program in advanced leadership and management, brings together promising global leaders who have earned or are earning an M.B.A. or equivalent degree from member schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management.
- The Systemic Risk track of the one-year Master of Management Studies (MMS) program leverages the expertise of the Yale Program on Financial Stability to study macroprudential financial regulation and the measurement and management of systemic risk.
- The Global Business and Society track of the MMS program, open to master of management students at schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management, gives these early-career individuals the management tools and broad perspective to launch global careers.
- The PhD program, which confers degrees through the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, disseminates the school’s deep faculty expertise in accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and organizations and management to the next generation of scholars.
Students in each degree program benefit from this portfolio approach. For example, elective classes in the MBA program are enriched by the perspectives of MAM and MMS students from throughout the world. Students in the executive MBA program bring experience and networks in three important areas. In addition, the school offers a broad portfolio of both customized and open-enrollment nondegree programs, giving professionals from around the world the opportunity to benefit from Yale expertise.