New Thunderbird School Of Global Management Breaks Ground In Phoenix

By Tom Maxedon
Published: Monday, October 7, 2019 - 5:53pm
Updated: Tuesday, October 8, 2019 - 10:24am

thunderbird school rendering
Jones Studio
A rendering of the ASU Thunderbird School of Global Management in downtown Phoenix.

Construction of a new headquarters for the Thunderbird School of Global Management will begin soon as ground has been broken on the site of the new facility.

Spokesperson Tomas Bilbao said the $67 million downtown Phoenix building is going to be both a physical and a digital meeting space for Arizona State University’s global network of 45,000 alumni, partners and students — half of which come from around the world.

“We’re preparing Thunderbird both by revamping our curriculum but also by creating a headquarters that’s worthy of taking on the challenge of preparing global leaders,” Bilbao said.

The project will take about two years to complete and is expected to be open by the school’s 75th anniversary in the fall of 2021.

The Thunderbird School of Global Management almost closed due to the impact of 9/11 and the global financial crisis in the late 2000s. Arizona State University offered the Glendale college a lifeline in 2014.

Not quite the proverbial Phoenix rising from the ashes, but one of the top international management schools in the world is thriving again. To talk about the school, The Show reached out to Sanjeev Khagram, dean of the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

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