UCLA Anderson School of Management

Business school at University of California, Los Angeles

The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management

The School of Management at UCLA was founded in 1935, and the MBA degree was authorized by the Regents of the University of California four years later. In its early years, the school was primarily an undergraduate institution, although this began to change in the 1950s after the appointment of Neil H. Jacoby as dean; the last undergraduate degree was awarded in 1969. UCLA is rare among public universities in the United States for not offering undergraduate business administration degrees. Undergraduate degrees in business economics are offered through the UCLA College of Letters and Science. In 1950, the school was renamed the School of Business Administration. Five years later, it became the Graduate School of Business Administration; in the 1970s the school's name was changed again to the Graduate School of Management. In 1987, John E. Anderson (1917–2011), class of 1940, donated $15 million to the school and prompted the construction of a new complex at the north end of UCLA's campus. Recently, the school has been mostly self funded, with only $6 million of government funding out of its $96 million budget in 2010 11. In fall 2010, the school proposed "financial self sufficiency": Giving up all state funding, in return for freedom from some state rules and freedom to raise tuition. The year 2010 also marked UCLA Anderson's entry into the Consortium for Graduate Study in Management, with its inaugural Consortium class enrolling in the full time MBA program during Fall 2011. In July 2018, Judy D. Olian, who served as the eighth dean of UCLA's Anderson School of Management, became Quinnipiac University's first female president when she took over for John Lahey, who retired in June 2018. Alfred Osborne, Associate Senior Dean of External Affairs and a professor at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, began serving as the school’s interim dean on July 1, 2018. Antonio Bernardo, a member of the finance faculty since 1994, was appointed UCLA Anderson’s ninth dean, effective July 1, 2019.

The school is located on north part of the UCLA campus. The four main buildings, Mullin, Cornell, Entrepreneurs, and Gold, form an inner circle at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Westwood Plaza, which is the extension of Westwood Boulevard. Connected to the Gold building is the Collins building, which is named for alumnus James A. Collins, who is the chairman emeritus of Sizzler International, Inc. and who funded the John R. Wooden statue in front of Pauley Pavilion. The new Marion Anderson Hall addition opened February 12, 2020. The 64,000 square foot campus addition is estimated to cost $80 million and is one hundred percent donor funded. Marion Anderson Hall is designed by a collaboration of Gensler, leading the interior architecture, and exterior design by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, the same architectural firm that designed the original Anderson complex. The new building features four floors, interactive work, learning and event spaces, LEED Platinum certification, and will serve as the prominent entrance to the Anderson complex.

The Anderson School of Management has also began accepting admissions for their Business Analytics program in 2017.

In September 2017, the School announced the publication of a new online journal chronicling its faculty’s research into crucial issues in business, the economy, and the wider world. The UCLA Anderson Review's content ranges from brief accounts of individual faculty research projects to long read articles examining in depth the issues explored by groups of UCLA Anderson faculty.

The Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies oversees all teaching, research, extracurricular, and community activities related to entrepreneurship at UCLA Anderson. It helps participants such as Head Start directors, early childcare professionals, and owners of developing businesses to direct and grow their organizations with a focused, well managed, entrepreneurial flair. The Laurence and Lori Fink Center for Finance & Investments (CFI) is named for BlackRock CEO Laurence D. Fink, and sponsors research, teaching and the application of financial knowledge in the global corporate and investment community. UCLA Anderson Forecast provides forecasts for the economies of California and the United States. Its quarterly conferences are attended by business, professional, and government decision makers from across the U. S. The Richard S. Ziman Center For Real Estate was established in 2002. UCLA Anderson also has a Center for International Business Education and Research, which was founded in 1989 as part of a network of 28 CIBERs created by the United States Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988. The Center for Managing Enterprises in Media, Entertainment and Sports (MEMES) examines the forces of change on the management of enterprises in entertainment and media including the impacts of technology, consolidation, and globalization. The Center and its predecessors have been around since the late 1970s and have approximately 1,000 graduates in management positions in the media, entertainment, and technology industries. 150 200 MBA students each year participate in classes, lunches with executives, Days on the Job, field studies, speakers, and other activities with the Institute. The student run organization linked to the MEMES Center is called the Entertainment Management Association (EMA).

The UCLA Anderson alumni network consists of 39,000 members in over 25 chapters in over 75 countries worldwide.

Anderson also has a very strong focus on giving back to the community. One of the biggest clubs on campus is the Challenge for Charity, a competition between the top West Coast business schools to put in the most volunteer hours per student and raise the most money for Special Olympics per student.