The Willamette University MBA (Atkinson) is the

Masters in Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

(MBA) program at

Willamette University Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, which runs north through the city. The river ...

, United States. It is one of only two MBA programs in the world accredited for both

Business Administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

(

AACSB The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, also known as AACSB International, is an American professional organization. It was founded as the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1916 to provide accreditation to ...

International) and

Public Administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

(

NASPAA The Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization. It is an international association of public affairs schools (schools of public policy and administration) at unive ...

). Atkinson was established by Willamette in 1974 and has an enrollment of approximately 312 students.

History

Atkinson Graduate School was founded at Willamette University in 1974 and moved into the new Seeley G. Mudd Building in 1975.NorthWest Point of Capitalism. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 185 ...

'', January 4, 1988. The first year had 52 students and five professors. The program is older than the management program at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. Stephen Archer served as the school's first dean. The school was first named as the Willamette University School of Administration before being renamed as the George H. Atkinson Graduate School of Management.Hamburg, Ken. Atkinson teaches success. ''

'', January 17, 1988. Atkinson was a businessman in the construction industry and a trustee of Willamette before he died in 1978. He served as president of the board of trustees and made the largest single donation in school history up to that time in 1969 when his foundation gave $3.4 million to the university. Willamette University Atkinson - Oregon

In 1978, the Center for Business-Government Studies was added to the school after Willamette received a grant from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust. The program was designed to better understand the relationships between the government and businesses. In 1988, the school was recognized by '' U.S. News & World Report'' and the fifth best business school in the Midwest and West region. It was the highest ranked of any school in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

. Enrollment was 130 students with 10 full-time professors. At that time the program was led by Dean David L. Puryear with a tuition of just over $8,000 per year. In 1990, the school hired G. Dale Weight to serve as dean, the same year he was removed as chief executive officer of the

Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan was a Savings and loan association, thrift based in Portland, Oregon, Portland, in the U.S. state of Oregon. Founded in 1925, the company was seized by the United States Government in 1990. In 1996 the United States ...

after the thrift was seized by the government during the Savings and loan crisis. Weight remained dean until 1998. At that time Atkinson GSM had 184 students and 11 full-time faculty members. Tuition was $14,900 per year then and incoming students scored an average of 550 on the

Graduate Management Admission Test The Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT ( ())) is a computer adaptive test (CAT) intended to assess certain analytical, writing, quantitative, verbal, and reading skills in written English for use in admission to a graduate management ...

. From 1998 to 2002, Atkinson was led by Dean Bryan Johnston. Johnston had been the interim president at Willamette and a member of the

Oregon House of Representatives The Oregon House of Representatives is the lower house of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. There are 60 members of the House, representing 60 districts across the state, each with a population of 65,000. The House meets in the west wing of the ...

. Atkinson opened a center to the north in Portland's

Pearl District The Pearl District is an area of Portland, Oregon, formerly occupied by warehouses, light industry and railroad classification yards and now noted for its art galleries, upscale businesses and residences. The area has been undergoing significan ...

in August 2005 to provide a two-year MBA program in the Oregon's most populous city. In February 2007, the Jeld-Wen Foundation made a $2.5 million donation to endow a free-enterprise professorship at the school, the largest donation ever for the graduate program. Dean Jim Goodrich, who joined Atkinson in 2003, retired from the school in June 2007, with Debra J. Ringold serving as interim dean. Previously the JELD-WEN Professor in Free Enterprise, Ringold was named as the permanent dean in January 2008. In 2007, the Center for Business Education ranked the school 58th in their Beyond Grey Pinstripes rankings for emphasizing social and environmental awareness in the business world. The school was admitted to the

Graduate Management Admission Council The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC) is an international non-profit organization of business schools that provides products and services to academic institutions and prospective graduate management education students. The organization ...

in June 2009. As of 2009, the program had approximately 230 students, and was the largest full-time MBA program in Oregon. The program enrollment grew to 312 students as of 2011. The Atkinson Graduate School of Management was ranked among Forbes magazine's "Best Business Schools" list in 2009 and 2011. It is the only ranked program on Forbes' 2011 list in Oregon. The MBA program was ranked as the third largest in the Portland area by the ''

Portland Business Journal Portland most commonly refers to: * Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States * Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...

'' in 2012. The school's Portland center moved to Northwest 12th Avenue and Kearney to the RiverTec building in 2013. In June 2015, the school received a $1 million gift from alumnus George Hoyt and his wife Colleen.

Academics

Atkinson offers several different graduate programs. The school offers full-time, part-time, and evening enrollment.Willamette University.

The Princeton Review The Princeton Review is an education services company providing tutoring, test preparation and admission resources for students. It was founded in 1981. and since that time has worked with over 400 million students. Services are delivered by 4,0 ...

. Retrieved December 11, 2007. MBA programs include the MBA for Professionals, Accelerated MBA, Early Career and Career Change MBA. In the Early Career and Career Change MBA, students can choose areas of interests including accounting, finance, general management,

human resources Human resources (HR) is the set of people who make up the workforce of an organization, business sector, industry, or economy. A narrower concept is human capital, the knowledge and skills which the individuals command. Similar terms include m ...

, information systems, marketing, organizational analysis,

public management Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit establ ...

, international management, and quantitative analysis/management science.What Atkinson Says About.

. Retrieved December 11, 2007. Students in their first year in a program are required to enroll in an entrepreneurship course called PACE that includes strategies that are used to develop a business plan. The graduate programs also require courses in business ethics, including the Oregon Ethics in Business Awards evaluation program. Located across the street from the

Oregon State Capitol The Oregon State Capitol is the building housing the state legislature and the offices of the governor, secretary of state, and treasurer of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located in the state capitol, Salem. Constructed from 1936 to 1938 ...

, unlike similar management schools, Atkinson has been able to maintain some of its focus on public management programs. The school also offers a four-year joint MBA- JD degree in association with the

Willamette University College of Law Willamette University College of Law is the law school of Willamette University. Located in Salem, Oregon, and founded in 1883, Willamette is the oldest law school in the Pacific Northwest. It has approximately 24 full-time law professors and ...

.Academics.

. Retrieved December 11, 2007. Willamette's MBA for Professionals program in Portland and Salem focuses management skill development, broad based strategic thinking and cross-functional knowledge. Classrooms are located in the Brewery Block II building in the

and on the Salem campus. Atkinson offers three study abroad programs,

Copenhagen Business School Copenhagen Business School (Danish'': Handelshøjskolen i København'') often abbreviated and referred to as CBS (also in Danish), is a public university situated in Copenhagen, Denmark and is considered one of the most prestigious business schoo ...

in Denmark and Bordeaux Business School and

EM Strasborg EM, Em or em may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * EM, the E major musical scale * Em, the E minor musical scale * Electronic music, music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production * Enc ...

Business School in France. In addition to student programs, AGSM also offers an Executive Development Center (EDC) designed to educate businesses and organizations as consultants to those groups. The PACE Program is the centerpiece of Atkinson's full-time MBA Program, specifically for students early in their career or changing careers. By working within and outside organizations, students apply what they are learning in the classroom to the inner workings of the private, non-profit, and government sectors.

Rankings and accreditation

AGSM is accredited by the AACSB in business, by NASPAA for government and not for profit administration, and the law school has been accredited by the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

since 1938. It was the first school in the world to be accredited by both the NASPAA and AACSB. Atkinson was selected as one of the top 91 programs for preparing MBA's for social and environmental stewardship by "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" and ranked 28th for the specialty of "Public Affairs, Public Finance and Budgeting" by ''U.S. News & World Report''. As of 2009, '' U.S. News & World Report'' ranks the school's public affairs program as the 90th best in the United States. Willamette's MBA program is also listed as one of Forbes best business schools, the highest ranked program in Oregon in 2009 and the only ranked program in Oregon in 2011. It was also the only Oregon school to make Bloomberg Businessweek's rankings in 2014, coming in at 81. "Beyond Grey Pinstripes" again recognized Willamette's commitment to ethics, environmental stewardship and social responsibility. Willamette's MBA was ranked No. 23 in the world in the rankings released in 2011. Willamette received special recognition for its business impact, which measures how courses prepare students to lead for-profit businesses that improve social and environmental conditions.

Facilities

The school is housed in the Seeley G. Mudd Building on the west end of the

campus in Salem. The building is named after

Seeley G. Mudd Seeley Greenleaf Mudd, M.D. (April 18, 1895 – March 10, 1968) was an American physician, professor, and major philanthropist to academic institutions. Early life Mudd was born in Denver, Colorado in 1895, and was the son of noted mining engine ...

, a physician, educator, and philanthropist who has many buildings across the country named in his honor. The Mudd building was completed in 1975. This structure was designed by architect Phil Settecase. In 2000, the school installed a

wireless network A wireless network is a computer network that uses wireless data connections between network nodes. Wireless networking is a method by which homes, telecommunications networks and business installations avoid the costly process of introducing c ...

in the building. Law classes are held in the neighboring Truman Wesley Collins Legal Center. Collins was built in 1967 and expanded in 1992. The Willamette University Portland Center was established in 2005 and houses the MBA for Professionals (evening) program. It is located in a space in the Pearl District at the RiverTec Building. The Portland Center is also utilized for events through Willamette's Executive Development Center.

Students

Atkinson has an enrollment of 312 students in all programs. Students have an average entering GPA of 3.30 and

(GMAT) score of 610. Select students are eligible for induction into

Beta Gamma Sigma Beta Gamma Sigma () is the International Business Honor Society. Founded in 1913 at the University of Wisconsin, University of Illinois and the University of California, it has over 980,000 members, selected from more than 600 collegiate chapters ...

, the honor society for business students. The average age of students in the full-time (Early Career MBA and MBA for Career Change) is 25. Over 30% of students in Willamette's full-time MBA programs come from outside the U.S. The average age of students in the MBA for Professionals program is 34.

Notable alumni

Jason Atkinson Jason Atkinson (born November 6, 1970) is an American politician in the US state of Oregon. The Republican grew up in the Southern Oregon city of Ashland. He served as a senator in the Oregon State Senate from 2001 to 2013. He ran unsuccess ...

, Oregon politician *

Sandy Baruah Santanu K. "Sandy" Baruah is an American politician from the state of Oregon and is the president and chief executive officer of the Detroit Regional Chamber. Biography Baruah served as President George W. Bush’s last (acting) Administrator of ...

, former U.S. Commerce Department official, President of the Detroit Chamber *

Grace Crunican Grace Crunican (born 1955) is a mass transportation specialist who most recently served as General Manager of the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District. She had previously worked for the Oregon Department of Transportation, the Fede ...

, general manager of

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

David Gomberg David Gomberg (born June 9, 1953) is a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic member of the Oregon House of Representatives, representing District 10 on the state's central coast since January 14, 2013. He served in political staff and lo ...

, Oregon politician *

Punit Renjen Punit Renjen (born 1961) is an Indian-American businessman who has been chief executive officer of the multinational professional services firm Deloitte since June 1, 2015. Previously, Renjen was chairman and CEO of Deloitte Consulting LLP, and la ...

, CEO

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of profession ...

References

External links

Rivals team on new executive education program
''Portland Business Journal'' {{authority control Business schools in Oregon Willamette University Educational institutions established in 1974 1974 establishments in Oregon