Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University is ranked No. 1 in the world for international trade by the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) International Trade Rankings 2023, ahead of Cambridge, Harvard, and Stanford. As part of Arizona State University, ranked No. 1 “Most Innovative School” in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for eight years in succession, Thunderbird draws on a vast spectrum of disciplines of excellence to empower leaders across sectors with future-ready skills. Thunderbird advances inclusive and sustainable prosperity worldwide by educating and influencing global leaders and managers who maximize the benefits of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for business, government, society, and the environment.
For more than 75 years, Thunderbird has produced leaders capable of tackling the world’s greatest challenges. 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.”
Dr. Sanjeev Khagram, Director General and Dean of Thunderbird, has ushered in the new Thunderbird 4.0 era, imprinting his vision in every detail of the newly opened F. Francis & Dionne Najafi Thunderbird Global Headquarters building, which spans 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 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.
Thunderbird’s global footprint has also grown over the years, with operations now in Geneva, Dubai, Tokyo, Seoul, Nairobi, Jakarta, and nearly 15 others, Thunderbird’s regional Centers of Excellence ensure that the School is now the world’s first truly “global multinational business school,” committed to training the next generation of global leaders.
