About Thunderbird

The vanguard of global leadership, management, and business education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Overview

Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University is the world’s premier institution for global leadership, management, and business education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but we are much more than a school. Thunderbird is also a global network of leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs across the private and public sectors who advance the School’s vision of inclusive and sustainable prosperity worldwide. Now a part of Arizona State University, Thunderbird brings the world’s No. 1 ranked Master’s in Management to the nation’s No. 1 “Most Innovative School” (U.S. News & World Report).

Our Vision

Thunderbird School of Global Management advances inclusive, sustainable prosperity, and peace worldwide.

Why Thunderbird?

Learn why Thunderbird is the vanguard or global leadership and management education.

Image of Thunderbird Professor Lena Booth at a laptop.
Image of an alumni standing in front of the Thunderbird School of Global Management's Thunderbird logo at the Pub in the new Global Headquarters.

Our Worldwide Community

Thunderbird’s worldwide community of graduates is uniquely equipped to make a difference in this era of rapid change and disruption. The School leverages the resources and talent of our alumni to guide, advocate and support the achievement of our collective mission.


Thunderbird offers our alumni the opportunity to future-proof their skills through lifelong learning opportunities and by connecting them with each other in a global network of experts. 

Our Regional Centers of Excellence

With a rapidly expanding network of satellite Centers of Excellence in all regions, Thunderbird delivers cutting-edge and fit-for-purpose programs across the globe. Our network of Centers of Excellence from Los Angeles to Tokyo, provides a truly global presence that sets Thunderbird apart by facilitating academic offerings in major commercial centers around the world, connecting and engaging our worldwide alumni network, and supporting international recruiting.

Dean Sanjeev Khagram with Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed at Thunderbird School of Global Management's Dubai Center of Excellence in the Dubai Global Innovation Center.
Vintage image of pilot in a propeller plane on Thunderbird School of Global Management's old headquarters.

The Evolution of Thunderbird

Thunderbird 1.0: Founded in 1946 on the grounds of a deactivated airbase (Thunderbird Field No. 1), Thunderbird was the first graduate management school focused on global business.


Thunderbird 2.0: The 1960s proved to be a time of global expansion for the institution. Thunderbird enjoyed steady growth and with that came a sense of identity in the world of international business education.


Thunderbird 3.0: By the 1980s, Thunderbird had risen to become a major player in the corporate and academic arenas, ranking No. 1 in the world for international management.


Thunderbird. 4.0: In 2014, Thunderbird joined Arizona State University, bringing the world’s No.1 ranked Master of Global Management program under the umbrella of the university ranked the No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the United States by U.S. News & World Report. With a new global headquarters on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus and Centers of Excellence around the world, Thunderbird is now strategically focused on delivering the world’s finest leadership and management education for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Our History

Thunderbird has trained global leaders and managers for over 75 years. Originally known as the American Institute for Foreign Trade, Thunderbird was chartered on April 8, 1946, at a World War II airbase in Glendale, Arizona called Thunderbird Field, where pilots from around the world came for training during wartime. General Barton Kyle Yount obtained the airfield with the express purpose of developing a school for professionals focused exclusively on international trade and global affairs. The guiding principle established at Thunderbird’s founding is best summarized in a phrase coined by original faculty member Dr. William Lytle Schurz, “Borders frequented by trade seldom need soldiers.”

Thunderbird became the world’s first-ever higher education institution to focus exclusively on international leadership by concentrating its curriculum on global management and business skills, international political economy and regional business environments, languages and cross-cultural communications. The School has often been called a “mini-United Nations” because of its diverse and inclusive global student body. Thunderbird is now known worldwide for its vast and engaged alumni network of more than 50,000 graduates in nearly 150 nations around the globe. Thunderbird has more than 170 alumni chapters that meet regularly in 70 countries.

In 2015, Thunderbird became a unit of the Arizona State University enterprise, combining Thunderbird’s multi-decade heritage of developing global leaders with ASU’s expansive resources. The School relocated to ASU’s vibrant Downtown Phoenix (Arizona, USA) campus in 2018. The move brought the world’s No. 1 ranked Master’s in Management (WSJ/THE) under the umbrella of the nation’s No. 1 ranked school for innovation (U.S. News & World Report).

In the first-ever rankings of their kind, Thunderbird was recently named No. 1 in the world for international trade by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), the premier global higher education analyst organization. Scoring 100 out of 100 points, this top ranking places Thunderbird ahead of Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, domestically, and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, internationally. In partnership with the Hinrich Foundation, QS selected Thunderbird’s Master of Global Management degree program as the “world’s best international trade programme,” in its QS International Trade Rankings 2023.

Ushering in the Thunderbird 4.0 era, is the newly opened F. Francis & Dionne Najafi Thunderbird Global Headquarters building, spanning 110,000 square feet over five floors on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus. The building is designed to bring the world’s leading technology directly to the hands of Thunderbird students and

faculty. The facility enables students to connect with the world and experience what they seek to learn and study in real-time.

Thunderbird’s global footprint has also grown over the years as well, with operations now in Geneva, Dubai, Tokyo, Seoul, Nairobi, Jakarta, and nearly 15 others, Thunderbird’s Center of Excellence regional offices ensure that the School is now the world’s first truly “global multinational business school,” committed to training the next generation of global leaders.

As the world continues innovating, and technology changes the way we live and work, Thunderbird is developing nimble, ethical, global leaders who can seize the opportunities offered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution to create sustainable prosperity worldwide.

An illustration capturing an imagination of Thunderbird in 2096

Thunderbird 2096

At Thunderbird we never stop imagining what a better world could look like nor how Thunderbird can continue to evolve to help make that a reality. During our 75th anniversary celebrations throughout 2021, we have come together to imagine what Thunderbird could look like in another 75 years, 2096. Checkout our vision of the Thunderbird School of Intergalactic Management.

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