ASU Thunderbird School ranked No. 15 worldwide

The Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU was able to maintain its status and position in the 2015 Financial Times executive education rankings, which measures performance and quality for calendar year 2014, during perhaps the single most eventful year in the school’s history.

Ranked No. 15 in the world overall, Thunderbird executive education remains a top-ranked provider of both open-enrollment and custom executive education programs.

Executive education offers non-degree programs to corporations and working managers. Programs are open (available to all) or customized (tailor-made for an organization). The rankings are based on participants’ and clients’ satisfaction, the diversity of participants and faculty, and the school’s international exposure.

The 2015 Financial Times executive education rankings represent the first time that ASU is ranked by the Financial Times in these categories, with Thunderbird now officially listed as “Thunderbird School of Global Management at ASU.”

Thunderbird’s custom ranking increased two spots from No. 22 in 2014 to No. 20 in 2015. Its custom programs are ranked No. 6 in the United States, ahead of other U.S.-based schools, such as University of Pennsylvania-Wharton, University of Virginia-Darden, Northwestern University-Kellogg and Columbia Business School.

Thunderbird’s open-enrollment programs ranked No. 26 in the world and No. 12 in the United States.

In December 2014, Arizona State University and the Thunderbird School of Global Management signed a final agreement to make the Thunderbird School of Global Management part of the ASU knowledge enterprise, combining the strength of an international business-education powerhouse with the resources of an innovative public research university.

“The integration of Thunderbird with ASU will benefit both institutions,” said ASU President Michael M. Crow at the signing. “This will create new opportunities for our students, and it will provide a platform for showcasing ASU’s strengths to a new set of partners around the world. Thunderbird students will have access to a much broader range of courses, as well as the advantages that come with being part of a major research university.”

Crow named Allen Morrison, a scholar of global management who until recently held the Kristian Gerhard Jebsen Chair for Responsible Leadership in the Maritime Industry at the the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), to become chief executive officer and director general of the new Thunderbird.

“Thunderbird is stronger as a part of ASU, and ASU is stronger for having Thunderbird as a part of the institution,” said Morrison.

Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University is an unprecedented alliance. It combines Thunderbird’s nearly 70-year heritage of developing inspired global leaders with Arizona State University’s unrivaled resources and ardent goals for international expansion. Together, they educate global leaders who create sustainable prosperity worldwide. Degree programs are now accepting applications.

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Thunderbird, located at 59th Avenue and Greenway Road in Glendale, not far from ASU’s West campus, was founded in 1946 and for decades has enjoyed a reputation for excellence and leadership in global management and business education. Major publications around the world have consistently named Thunderbird as a leader in global business education. 

ASU is a comprehensive public research university that measures success not by whom it excludes, but by whom it includes and how they succeed. The largest public university in the nation, ASU is dedicated to advancing research and discovery of public value, and assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic and social well-being of the communities that it serves. It is also engaged globally, with research and development projects underway in Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. ASU recently ranked eighth in the nation for its international student enrollment, with students from more than 150 countries.