It’s stocktaking time at the Graduate School of Business. Michael Spence, dean since 1990, has announced he’ll step down next summer. And the school will celebrate its 75th anniversary in 2000.
There’s a lot to inventory in the booming decade of Spence’s tenure. The school has benefited from -- and contributed to -- the Silicon Valley revolution, a burgeoning international economy and an explosion of start-up companies. Among the GSB’s innovations are new programs in global management and entrepreneurial studies. Under Spence, the school has recruited lecturers from the high-tech and venture capital industries, and it has teamed up with the engineering school on interdisciplinary projects in computing and manufacturing. Spence also oversaw the revamping of the curriculum and the introduction of a dozen new executive education programs.
The GSB’s corner of campus is mushrooming, too. A $31 million business school dorm, the Schwab Residential Center, opened last year, and a new faculty office building is under construction. Student demand, meanwhile, continues to grow. This year, a record 7,000 applicants vied for 360 first-year MBA places.
Spence says the GSB aims to be the top management school in the world, adding, “We’ve made a good start.”
