About

For more than 200 years, the George Washington University has offered the advantages of a major private university while providing the personalized attention that students would expect in a smaller academic setting. International recognition and top research faculty coupled with small class sizes and a forward-thinking curriculum give students the strategic perspective necessary to succeed in today’s global marketplace.

Since 1928, GW School of Business (GWSB) students have leveraged our global presence to pursue practical, insightful expertise in the world of business from an enviable vantage point. As one of the most diverse cities in the United States, D.C. is home to more than 1,000 internationally owned companies, more than 400 international associations and nearly 180 foreign embassies, residences, chanceries and diplomatic missions — many of them less than one mile from GW’s campus.

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History

The GW School of Business (GWSB) was born in a spirit of innovation. You might say it’s our oldest — and proudest — tradition. Since our founding in 1928, we’ve stood on the cutting edge of bold new ideas. Today, that’s still where you’ll find us: creating and building for a new century.

In 1928, the school was founded on the idea, new for its time, that business and government might become partners in promoting national prosperity and international development. Beginning with a $1 million endowment from the League of Masonic Clubs, GW President Cloyd H. Marvin established what was known as the School of Government, with degree programs that integrated business and politics on the national and international levels.

In the years following World War II, change came rapidly. In 1960, the school was renamed the School of Government, Business, and International Affairs. Then, in 1966, President Lloyd H. Elliott split its faculties into a new School of Government and Business Administration (SGBA) and a School of International Affairs — which still bears President Elliott’s name today. The SGBA was renamed the School of Business and Public Management in 1990. In 2004, it became the School of Business.

Throughout its history, GWSB has attracted some of the nation’s most outstanding leaders from academia, government and business, including former deans F. David Fowler, a managing partner of KPMG Peat Marwick, and Susan M. Phillips, a former member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Over years various stages of evolution, the GW School of Business has assembled an impressive roster of distinguished alumni, including U.S. Senators Jean Carnahan, Kent Conrad and Michael Enzi; Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan; General Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and U.S. secretary of state; Mary-Beth Morgan, former director of cybersecurity, U.S. Department of Defense; Michelle Knox-Zaloom, U.S. Olympian (women’s rowing team, 1992 and 1996); and Chicago Bulls and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf, to name just a few.