Scheller College of Business

The Scheller College of Business is the business school at the Georgia Institute of Technology, a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia. It was established in 1912 and is consistently ranked in the top 30 business programs in the nation.

History
Georgia Tech's business school began in 1912 with the creation of the School of Commerce. In 1933, it was moved to the University of Georgia during the newly created Georgia Board of Regents' decision to consolidate Georgia's system of higher education. It would later become Georgia State University.

To meet the need for management training in technology, an Industrial Management degree was established in 1934, with a master's degree in the subject becoming the first professional management degree offered in the state 11 years later. The PhD program began in 1970.

In 1989, the College of Management, previously named the School of Commerce, combined with the social sciences, humanities, and economics departments to form the Ivan Allen College of Management, Policy and International Affairs. Nine years later, in 1998, the College of Management separated from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts to become its own college.

In 1996, Georgia Tech alumnus and restaurateur Thomas E. DuPree, Jr. pledged a $20 million donation to the College of Management, resulting in the college being named the DuPree College of Management in his honor. However, while DuPree donated over $5 million to the college, his name was removed from the college in 2004 when the additional $15 million was not forthcoming. DuPree had recently resigned as board chairman and CEO of Avado Brands, the parent company of several chain restaurants that had recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In a carefully worded statement, Georgia Tech President G. Wayne Clough remarked that while DuPree's name would be "reluctantly" removed from the college, "We retain the utmost respect for Tom DuPree and all of his remarkable accomplishments and many philanthropic activities." DuPree's donation of over $5 million to the college did fund nearly 200 scholarships although the remaining pledged donations were never provided.

On November 6, 2009, the College of Management received an anonymous gift of $25 million. The donor was later identified as Ernest Scheller, Jr., a Georgia Tech alumnus with a degree in Industrial Management (now known as a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration) and former chairman of Silberline Manufacturing, a Tamaqua, Pennsylvania-based pigment manufacturer. Scheller used $20 million of his donation as a one-to-one challenge grant designed to inspire charitable gifts and commitments from other donors. Fundraising for the challenge concluded on June 30, 2012. The remaining $5 million of Mr. Scheller's initial $25 million donation has been designated as discretionary funds to be dispersed by the deans.

In June 2012, the college announced a $50 million gift from Ernest Scheller Jr. This $50 million included the $25 million that had been given by him anonymously in 2009. It was the largest cash gift in Georgia Tech's history. As a result of Mr. Scheller's gift, the College of Management was renamed the Ernest Scheller Jr. College of Business

Facilities


In 2000, Georgia Tech undertook a $180 million building project in Atlanta called Technology Square. This new multi-building complex, home to the College of Business, is a fusion of business, education, research, and retail space. The complex also houses The Global Learning Center, Advanced Technology Development Center, Economic Development Institute, Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development as well as the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. The facilities are located in Midtown Atlanta next to several major corporate headquarters such as Bellsouth (AT&T), The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Earthlink.

The purpose of Technology Square is to promote the formation of a high tech business cluster centered around a premier research university. Similar formations have taken place in cities such as Palo Alto and Boston, both nexuses of thriving high-tech corridors.

On November 24, 2006, the Scheller College of Business dedicated the 2000 sqft Ferris-Goldsmith Trading Floor. The trading floor includes 54 dual-display computers as well as electronic stock information on the walls and is used to train all levels of management students to use financial analysis and electronic trading tools. Business faculty use the facility to research improved human performance in trading environments as well as create new financial service models. The trading floor houses the Quantitative and Computational Finance program.

In September 2018, Georgia Tech announced the beginning of the Tech Square Phase III initiative. The two-tower complex will add more than 400,000 gross square feet of space to Tech Square.

One of the two planned high-rises, Scheller Tower, will be a new resource for the Scheller College of Business that expands the college's footprint within Tech Square. The earliest the building will open is in 2022.

Undergraduate
The Scheller College of Business offers a BS in Business Administration.

Rankings
The college is ranked #26th, and the part-time Master of Business Administration (MBA) is ranked #11 by US News and World Report. As part of the 2023-2024 Best Business Schools ranking, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked Scheller College No. 20.

Curriculum and format
Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business offers three MBA programs: Full-time, Evening, and Executive.

Full-time MBA
Scheller's Full-time MBA is a two-year degree consisting of one year of required courses and another year of mostly elective courses. The Full-time MBA program offers classes Monday through Friday and enrollment takes place once per year in August.

Evening (part-time) MBA
The Evening MBA program offers classes Monday through Thursday evening. The program enrolls twice per year, in January and August.

Scheller's Evening (part-time) MBA offers the same core curriculum and concentrations as the Full-time MBA program but allows students to take courses at their own pace with an average completion rate of 24 to 36 months.

Executive MBA
The Executive (weekend) MBA is a 17-month program with classes on Fridays and Saturdays for professionals with five or more years of professional work experience. Students can select one of two customizable tracks: Global Business or Management of Technology.

Postgraduate
The college offers a PhD in Management. It is limited to full-time students who will complete their entire doctoral program before leaving the campus. There are seven concentrations: Accounting, Finance, Information Technology Management, Marketing, Operations Management, Organizational Behavior, and Strategy and Innovation.

Business Analytics Center
The Business Analytics Center (BAC) brings together industry leaders, Georgia Tech faculty, and business analytics students to support programs offered by the College and Georgia Tech, including an MBA concentration in Business Analytics, a Certificate in Analytics, and one-year interdisciplinary Master of Science in Analytics.

Cecil B. Day Program for Business Ethics
Named for Cecil B. Day, founder of Days Inns of America, the program supports the Institute of Leadership and Social Impact's (ILSI) Ideas to Serve program, the Net Impact program, an annual speaker series, and a grant for faculty who incorporate ethics into their curriculum.

Center for International Business and Research
The mission of the Center for International Business and Research's (CIBER) mission is to ensure the long-term international economic competitiveness of the United States through the support of research, business education initiatives, and corporate outreach activities with forums, conferences, and thought leadership. It is one of only 17 national resource centers of excellence in international business funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Creative Destruction Lab
The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science and technology-based ventures. It supports ventures in commerce, consumer health, engineering, finance, logistics, public health, transportation, and more. The program's mentors provide assistance to technical founders who learn from other entrepreneurs. The TI:GER (Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program is the educational arm of CDL-Atlanta.

Financial Analysis Lab
The Financial Analysis Lab conducts unbiased research on issues of financial reporting and analysis. Their focus is on issues of interest to a large segment of stock market participants. Depending on the issue, the lab may focus attention on individual companies, groups of companies, or segments of the market at large and produce a quarterly report of cash flow trends and their quarterly drivers.

Institute for Leadership and Social Impact
The Institute for Leadership and Social Impact (ILSI) is an interdisciplinary center that promotes servant leadership and organizational practices through workshops, coursework, a major lecture series (the Impact Speaker Series), the Ideas to Serve student social innovation competition, the Servant Leadership Student Fellows program, and the Leadership for Social Good Study Abroad program.

Program for Engineering Entrepreneurship
The Program for Engineering Entrepreneurship is a collaboration between the Scheller College of Business, the College of Engineering, and the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. The program's focus includes a graduate-level curriculum leading to a Certificate in Engineering Entrepreneurship, and short courses on a variety of topics for faculty members, scientists, and engineers, academic conferences, and seminars.

Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business
The Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business (ACSB), named in honor of Georgia Tech alumnus Ray C. Anderson, focuses on conducting research, educating students, and partnering with industry practitioners to support the development of sustainable business practices. The center works with faculty research initiatives, offers grants to students interested in business sustainability, and partners with other universities for the Global Social Venture Competition. It also helps supports the Idea to Serve and Carbon Reduction Challenge Competitions.

Steven A. Denning Management & Technology Program
The Steven A. Denning Technology & Management (T&M) Program is open to all Georgia Tech undergraduate students. Business and Engineering students who complete the program earn a minor in Engineering & Business. Computer Science and IT Management students earn a minor in Computing & Business. Students from all other colleges earn a minor in Technology & Business.

TI:GER® (Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results)
The TI:GER® (Technology Innovation: Generating Economic Results) program is a 16-month transdisciplinary program that prepares students for careers in technology innovation. MBA students work with PhD students from Georgia Tech's College of Engineering, College of Computing, and College of Sciences on a project in innovative technology with a possibility for commercialization.