In the early weeks of COVID-19’s arrival in the U.S., Steven Reed, MBA’04, the newly elected, 46-year-old mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, peered into the future and did not like what he saw. Studying epidemiological charts and listening to public health experts, he understood that the novel coronavirus had the potential to hit his city hard. […]

A group of prominent Vanderbilt University alumni and supporters has committed more than $13 million toward an extensive renovation and expansion of Management Hall. Designating the group as the “Owen Century Partners,” Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Susan R. Wente notes how the investment marks an important milestone in moving forward with Owen’s […]

When Vanderbilt made the decision to postpone Commencement 2020 until May 2021, Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management quickly started developing alternative, virtual festivities for this year’s graduates, in conjunction with the university’s efforts. In a matter of two weeks, faculty, staff and students had built an online celebration of the graduating class, awarded prizes, […]

Last October’s Reunion brought an end to the yearlong celebration of the Owen School’s 50th anniversary, with numerous festivities that included an alumni lunch at SATCO and class parties at Topgolf. But the culminating event was a huge anniversary gala at Nashville’s City Winery—and our cameras were there to capture it.  

Even as the Owen community celebrates the school’s 50th anniversary, the namesake family whose commitment provided foundational support for the original School of Management continues to make an impact. A recently realized $1.75 million bequest from the estate of Mary Jane Swaney, BA’66, MA’69, and Charles Robb Swaney—nephew of the school’s benefactors, Lulu and Ralph […]

In 1969, the Vanderbilt Graduate School of Management burst onto the scene as a purposeful anomaly — a program that not merely dared to be different but celebrated the differences. Over the following three decades, Owen re-modeled itself along more traditional lines, building a school on top of the original foundation that achieved both success […]

Owen was humming at the beginning of its fourth decade. In 2000, the MBA program welcomed its largest class: 232 students. The faculty numbered almost 70; it now seemed quaint to recall that, in 1969, there had been twice as many professors (12) as students. Financially, the school was more secure than ever. An indefatigable […]

Owen’s third decade was the first that began with the school in strong position on a broad range of fronts.  A decade earlier, Dean Sam Richmond could boast that Owen had come of age. Now, it had done more than merely “arrive”; it had demonstrated staying power. Receiving accreditation was no longer a brag point […]

In Dean Sam Richmond’s office at Henry Clay Alexander Hall was an old-fashioned blackboard. On the blackboard, written in white chalk, was a list of 16 strategic objectives that Richmond identified after arriving in 1976. The list remained there for as long as the Owen School was housed in the building. Instead of erasing each […]

Fifty years ago, Vanderbilt launched its graduate business program with an ambitious, and perhaps unprecedented, goal in mind: To build a world-class management school that would defy hidebound academic tradition. What began as a rock-the-boat experiment, however, ended a decade later with a determined pivot to a more conventional course, narrowly averting the school’s demise. […]

Fifty years ago Vanderbilt University was finally, irrevocably, on its way to launching a graduate business school. After a decade of informal discussions and formal presentations, the university made its commitment and was actively soliciting major donors among both individuals and foundations. Vanderbilt had even secured a building for the new school: the former Cosmopolitan […]

I was 15 years old when my dad, Cal Turner Sr., took the step that changed everything. It involved the kind of creative leap that comes along all too rarely, and it ultimately left a huge mark on American business. J.L. Turner and Son, as it was called then (James Luther Turner was my grandfather), […]

If you want to gauge the hot areas of the economy—whether it’s technology, real estate or private equity—listen to the career aspirations of incoming business school students. Similarly, if you want to get a read on the future of business and business education, look to the Owen School’s newest faculty hires. A case in point […]

When Bob Whaley was creating the agenda for the annual spring conference at Vanderbilt’s Financial Markets Research Center (FMRC), he tore through a variety of business publications looking for possible topics. It didn’t take long before he was “inundated” with articles about exchangetraded funds, ETFs. Exchange-traded funds are passive investment vehicles that track a market […]

Joseph D. Blackburn, BE’63, had a much better idea. Blackburn, the James A. Speyer Professor of Production Management, Emeritus, declined to draft the content of a last lecture (he said it sounded too much like writing his own obituary) but offered to give Vanderbilt Business a transcript of what he’d say in a presentation similar […]