Gies College of Business is the business school of the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

, a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...

Champaign, Illinois Champaign ( ) is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, United States. The population was 88,302 at the 2020 census. It is the tenth-most populous municipality in Illinois and the fourth most populous city in Illinois outside the Chicago metro ...

. The college offers undergraduate program, masters programs, and a PhD program. The college and its Department of Accountancy are separately accredited by International. As of 2021, there are more than 70,000 Gies Business alumni worldwide, including several

Fulbright scholars The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

History

The university senate approved the College of Commerce and Business Administration on June 9, 1914 at the request of avid Kinley a university vice president who would later serve as president of the University of Illinois. The college was officially formed on April 27, 1915 through a vote of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees. The college began with three departments:

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analyzes ...

, Business Organization and Operation, and

Transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, ...

. Since 2015, Gies College of Business has partnered with

Coursera Coursera Inc. () is a U.S.-based massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses ...

to offer online

MBA 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 ...

program and an online MSA program. The school started with 113 students in the beginning for the online programs and later grew to more than 3,200 degree-seeking students from 46 states in United States and more than 90 countries in the world. The selectivity and acceptance rate to the program initially was 20.9% and is currently at 53%. In 2019, the school announced that it was suspending its on-campus full-time MBA, part-time MBA, and executive MBA.

College naming gifts

In 2017, alumni Larry Gies and Beth Gies donated US$150 million to the school, which was renamed the Gies College of Business in their honor. In 2020, alumnus Don Edwards donated US$10 million and the business school also further received a pledge in 2020 for $2.5 million for construction of shared instructional facility.

Campus

Gies College of Business is located in

. The campus is located around the intersection of Gregory Street and Sixth Street. This is the current home of Gies College of Business. When the college was first formed, however, it occupied the Commerce Building, now the East half of the Administration Building on the Main Quad. The Commerce building, dedicated in 1913, was built at a cost of $100 thousand. The college currently occupies three buildings: Wohlers Hall, Business Instructional Facility (BIF), and the Irwin Doctoral Study Hall. This area is known as the Business Quad and is considered part of the South Campus. Wohlers Hall, formerly known as Commerce West, was built in 1963. Albert H. and Jane Wohlers provided a $6 million naming gift in 2000 for renovations. The Business Instructional Facility (commonly referred to as "BIF"), approved by the UI Board of Trustees on July 14, 2004, stands opposite of Wohlers Hall across Sixth Street.. The $62 million project, designed by architect

Cesar Pelli Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ces ...

, is LEED-certified because of its "green", environmentally friendly elements.

Academic departments

Gies College of Business houses three departments: Accountancy, Business Administration, and Finance.

Accountancy

The Department of Accountancy was founded in 1953. The University offered courses in accounting before the creation of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Business. The courses in the university were offered through the Department of Economics from 1902 to 1915. The college began the first PhD program in 1937 and has graduated more accountancy PhD candidates than any other accountancy department in the United States. After the formation of the college, the accountancy program was moved into the Department of Business Organization until the Department's reorganization in the 1950s. In 1919, H.T. Scovill helped establish the

Beta Alpha Psi Beta Alpha Psi () is an international honor society for accounting, finance and information systems students attending universities accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business or the European Quality Improvement System ...

accounting honor society.

Business Administration

The Department of Business Administration was founded in 1968 through the mergers of the Department of Industrial Administration and Marketing and the Graduate School of Business Administration. This includes a iMBA program featured on Coursera.

Finance

In 1957, the UI Board of Trustees approved the Dean's proposal to create a Department of Finance. The MSF program began the following year.

Academies and centers

University of Illinois-Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Analytics

The University of Illinois-Deloitte Foundation Center for Business Analytics was established on October 25, 2016 by Deloitte Foundation thanks to a $5 million gift from the Deloitte Foundation and Deloitte's retired and current partners, principals, managing directors and employees.

Illinois MakerLab

The Illinois MakerLab is the world's first business school

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...

lab located on the third floor of the Business Instructional Facility. After opening in Spring of 2013, the MakerLab has provided printing, custom designing and prototyping, educational, and other related services for both the Urbana-Champaign and University of Illinois community. The lab is equipped with over 20 Ultimaker 3D printers and is run by undergraduate and graduate students. The lab was co-founded by Aric Rindfleisch and Vishal Sachdev.

Origin Ventures Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership

The Origin Ventures Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership is responsible for cross-campus and multidisciplinary programs for entrepreneurial students from all backgrounds including the award-winning iVenture Accelerator and Illinois Social Innovation. The Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership was established in 2004. In 2018, Bruce Barron (BS '77) and the REAM Foundation providing a naming gift to create the Origin Ventures Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership. The REAM Foundation gift was made in honor of Steven Miller (BS '87), who joined Barron in co-founding Origin Ventures, a venture capital firm in Chicago.

Rankings

In 2019, Public Accounting Report’s Annual Professors Survey has ranked the college under top 3 for undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D. accounting programs.

Notable people

Alumni

Gies College of Business has many notable alumni. Alumni are denoted by their area of study: accountancy (ACCY), business administration (BADM), finance (FIN), or general/unassigned (GEN) or MBA.

Academia

Michael Mikhail Michael Mikhail is Dean Emeritus of the UIC College of Business Administration, College of Business Administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to assuming his role as dean in 2012, Mikhail was the KPMG Professor, and Director of ...

(MAS '88) - Dean, College of Business Administration at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois ...

* Robert J. Swieringa (ACCY '69) – Dean,

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

and former member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. * Nicholas Dopuch (ACCY '61) – Former Head of Accounting, Washington University in St. Louis. * A.C. Littleton (ACCY '12, '18, '31) – Professor and accounting historian University of Illinois,

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

The Accounting Review ''The Accounting Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Accounting Association (AAA) that covers accounting with a scope encompassing any accounting-related subject and any research methodology. ''The Acco ...

Accounting Hall of Fame The Accounting Hall of Fame is an award "recognizing accountants who are making or have made a significant contribution to the advancement of accounting" since the beginning of the 20th century. Inductees are from both accounting academia and pract ...

inductee * Sybil C. Mobley (ACCY '64) – Dean and Head of Accounting,

Florida A&M Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...

. *

Clyde Summers Clyde Wilson Summers (November 21, 1918 – October 30, 2010) was an American lawyer and educator who is best known for his work in advocating more democratic procedures in trade union, labor unions. He helped write the Labor Management Reporting ...

(ACCY '39), labor lawyer and law professor at the

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

and

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

, subject of In re Summers

Business

Thomas Siebel Thomas M. Siebel (; born November 20, 1952) is an American billionaire businessman, technologist, and author. He was the founder of enterprise software company Siebel Systems and is the founder, chairman, and CEO of C3.ai, an artificial intelli ...

(MBA) - Billionaire and Founder of

Siebel Systems Siebel Systems, Inc. () was a software company principally engaged in the design, development, marketing, and support of customer relationship management (CRM) applications—notably Siebel CRM. The company was founded by Thomas Siebel and Pat ...

, C3.ai * Michael Krasny (FIN '75) - Billionaire and Founder of CDW Corporation * Sunil Benimadhu (MBA) - CEO of Stock Exchange of Mauritius * Ravin Gandhi (FIN '1994) - Founder of Coatings and Chemicals Corporation *

Jim Cantalupo James Richard Cantalupo (November 14, 1943 – April 19, 2004) was an American businessman. He served as chairman and chief executive officer of McDonald's Corporation until his sudden death by heart attack at the age of 60. Life Cantalupo was ...

(ACCY '66) – Former Chairman and CEO of

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

(1991–2004) * Richard H. Frank (BADM '64) – Former President, Walt Disney Studios *

George Henry Lesch George Henry Lesch (1909–1994) was the president and CEO of the Colgate-Palmolive company from 1961 to 1974, and was also the chairman of the board of the company from 1961 to 1974. He was featured on the cover of ''Forbes ''Forbes'' () i ...

(GEN '31) – Chairman of the Board, Colgate-Palmolive Company * Thomas Murphy (ACCY '38) – Former CEO and Chairman, General Motors * John D. Zeglis (FIN '69) – Former President,

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile te ...

; Former Chairman and CEO of

AT&T Wireless AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and Trade name, marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobi ...

Government and politics

Kelly Loeffler Kelly Lynn Loeffler (, ; born November 27, 1970) is an American businesswoman and politician who served as a United States senator for Georgia from 2020 to 2021. Loeffler was chief executive officer (CEO) of Bakkt, a subsidiary of commodity and ...

United States Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

for

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

Charles Bowsher Charles Arthur Bowsher (May 30, 1931September 30, 2022) was an American businessman and politician. He served as the 6th Comptroller General of the United States from 1981 to 1996. During that period, he led the Government Accountability Office ...

(ACCY '53) –

Comptroller General of the United States The Comptroller General of the United States is the director of the Government Accountability Office (GAO, formerly known as the General Accounting Office), a legislative-branch agency established by Congress in 1921 to ensure the fiscal and man ...

, Government Accountability Office *

George Evan Howell George Evan Howell (September 21, 1905 – January 18, 1980) was a United States representative from Illinois and Judge of the United States Court of Claims. Education and career Born in Marion, Illinois, Howell attended the public schools ...

(GEN '27), U.S. Congressman *

Samuel K. Skinner Samuel Knox Skinner (born June 10, 1938) is an American politician, lawyer, and businessman. Skinner served as U.S. Secretary of Transportation and White House Chief of Staff under President George H. W. Bush. Prior to the Bush administration, ...

(ACCY, '60) –

Secretary of Transportation A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...

(1989–1991); White House Chief of Staff during the George H. W. Bush Administration (1992)

Armed forces

Alfred G. Harms, Jr. Alfred may refer to: Arts and entertainment *''Alfred J. Kwak'', Dutch-German-Japanese anime television series *Alfred (Arne opera), ''Alfred'' (Arne opera), a 1740 masque by Thomas Arne *Alfred (Dvořák), ''Alfred'' (Dvořák), an 1870 opera ...

(MBA) - Retired Vice Admiral,

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

* Alex Fink (MBA) -

Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

, Chief of Enterprise Marketing at

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

Wilma L. Vaught Brigadier General (United States), Brigadier General Wilma L. Vaught, USAFR (Ret.) (born March 15, 1930) is an American retired military leader. She was the first woman to deploy with an United States Air Force, Air Force bomber unit, and the firs ...

(BADM '52) – Retired

Brigadier General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...

Sports

* Mike Small ('88) - Professional golfer and Head Coach for Illinois Fighting Illini men's golf * Josh Whitman (FIN '01) – Athletic director at the University of Illinois, former NFL player

Faculty

* Heitor Almeida - Stanley C. and Joan J. Golder Chair in Corporate Finance *

Dan Bernhardt Mark Daniel Bernhardt (born June 11, 1958) is an American-Canadian economist, focusing in industrial organization, finance and political economy, currently the IBE Distinguished Professor of Economics at University of Illinois. Bernhardt is also a ...

- IBE Distinguished Professor * Jeffrey Brown - Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor of Business *

Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans Richard Engelbrecht-Wiggans is an American economist, focusing in operations research, quantitative analysis of decisions and mathematical programming for management science and operations research, decision sciences, currently the IBE Distinguish ...

- IBE Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Business Administration *

Jack A. Goncalo Jack A. Goncalo is Professor of Business Administration and the Robert and Helen Seass Faculty Fellow at the Gies College of Business, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Goncalo received his BS, MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of C ...

- Professor of Business Administration * John Kindt - Professor Emeritus of Business Administration * Kent Monroe - John M. Jones Distinguished Professor of Marketing * Aric Rindfleisch - John M. Jones Professor of Marketing *

Daniel Simons Daniel James Simons (born 1969) is an experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois. Simons is best know ...

- Professor of Business Administration * Theodore Sougiannis - KPMG Distinguished Professor of Accountancy *

Scott Weisbenner Scott Weisbenner was an American economist, focusing on household portfolio decisions and the financial and operational decisions made by corporate executives and other institutional managers. He was the William G. Karnes Professor of Finance f ...

- William G. Karnes Professor in Mergers and Acquisitions *

Jagdish Sheth Jagdish N. Sheth (born 1938) is the Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing at the Goizueta Business School of Emory University. He was a prominent member of the core team during the initial years of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutt ...

- Former Distinguished Professor of Marketing (1969 to 1983) * Shahbaz Gill - Assistant Professor

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Illinois Urbana-Champaign Business, University of Business schools in Illinois Business Educational institutions established in 1915 1915 establishments in Illinois