In some unexpected (to me) news, the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business has renamed itself. It will now be known as the Booth School of Business, after alumnus David Booth (GSB ‘71). Obviously it’s not every day that a top-5 school renames itself. Pretty incredible.
I kind of wonder how this kind of rebranding affects business schools and their parent universities. I feel like for a top school, not having a name given by a donation implies a certain kind of power. Previously, among the top-5 only Kellogg and Wharton were named, and Wharton received its name over a century ago. Both those brands transcend the donation that named them in incredible ways. For a school like Harvard or Stanford, their lack of a separate name projects (to me, at least) that the brand can’t be bought. It didn’t surprise me, given my previous contact with the U of C, that Chicago fell into that category.
This kind of thing happens so infrequently that I’m sure no formal work has been done on the question. But it does make me wonder what the effects of rebranding a school of business are…
Anyhow, congrats to the Chicago community — Mr. Booth’s gift obviously speaks volumes about what his experience as a Chicago MBA means to him!
Read the full article: Chicago GSB becomes the Booth School