Thunderbird - The Garvin School of International Management

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**Thunderbird - The Garvin School of International Management**

Established	1946
President	Dr. Ángel Cabrera
Location	Glendale, AZ, USA
Website	www.thunderbird.edu

Thunderbird - The Garvin School of International Management is a business school in the United States, and the first and oldest graduate school specializing in international management and global business. Its main campus is situated in Glendale, Arizona, but it also has campuses in the Czech Republic in cooperation with the Czech Management Center; in Geneva, Switzerland; in Russia; in Shanghai, China; and in Monterrey, Mexico with the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM).

An alumnus or current student of Thunderbird is sometimes referred to as a "T-Bird". In March 2004, Thunderbird, until then the American Graduate School of International Management, received a naming gift from alumnus Sam Garvin and his wife Rita. The gift of US$60 million was at the time the single largest gift ever received by a business school.

[edit] History

The school was founded in 1946 as the first known school in the world dedicated to training international managers. Thunderbird graduate programs combine business, international studies, cross-cultural communication, and language. The School was built on Thunderbird Field, a historic air base established to train U.S., Canadian, British, and Chinese pilots during World War II. Remnants of that period are still visible, with landmark buildings, including the airfield control tower, barracks and airplane hangars, as part of the campus landscape.

Following World War II, Lt. General Barton Kyle Yount (1884-1949), the commanding general of the United States Army Air Training Command, initiated the purchase of the property on which the School is located; the property was valued at US$407,000. However, a law enacted after the war enabled someone to purchase government property at a discount if the property was going to be used for educational purposes. The founders successfully applied for a 100% discount, so the property was essentially free. The only condition was that it had to remain as an educational institution for ten years, and obviously it has done so for nearly 60 years.

General Yount saw a growing demand for international executive talent, and created the first school of business to focus exclusively on international management. He became Thunderbird's first president when the school was chartered on April 8, 1946; it was founded as a nonprofit corporation known as the American Institute for Foreign Trade. Classes began on October 1, 1946, and the school saw its first graduating class on June 14, 1947.

Growth and expansion have also included the addition of various new buildings on campus in Glendale, and additional facilities overseas, including a campus in France, and facilities in Japan, China and Russia. The school also teaches students through partnership programs in Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Taiwan.

In August 2004, Dr. Angel Cabrera, formerly president of (Madrid, Spain's) Instituto de Empresas, became the first foreign-born president of the School, succeeding Dr. Roy Herberger.

Then, in April 2006, as the school celebrated its 60th Anniversary, a new mission, vision and beliefs were announced to the public:

Mission: We educate global leaders who create sustainable prosperity worldwide
Vision: To be the world's foremost learning community for global managers and global enterprises
Beliefs: Global Mindset, Global Citizenship, Global Entrepreneurship, Global Thought Leadership, Global Learning Network

[edit] Rankings

Since 1995 Thunderbird has been ranked consistently by US News & World Report as the #1 school in International Management. The 2005 Business Week rankings place Thunderbird in the Top 50 Full-time MBA program (fifth consecutive time) and in the Top 10 for "Best & Brightest", Global Scope. Current Wall Street Journal rankings place Thunderbird as the #1 for Academic Excellence in International Business in the United States (as judged by U.S. recruiters), #1 Regionally, and #5 for top International Schools overall in Europe and North America (as judged by global recruiters).