Founded in 1920 as the Department of Commerce at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, the Edwin L Cox School of Business has been shaped by local Dallas business throughout its history, not only in name but also in strategy.
The school is based across three buildings on the SMU campus which is located 5 miles from the centre of Dallas. It has another campus in Plano, 20 miles from Dallas.
The school offers a bachelor of business administration with various business minors at undergraduate level. For graduates, there is the Two-Year MBA, One-Year MBA, Executive MBA and Master's in accounting; finance; management; business analytics; sport management and health promotion management. Joint degrees include an entertainment business-focused MA/MBA, the business-law focused JD/MBA programme and the MS Engineering/MBA.
There are a large number of Research Centres and institutes associated with SMU Cox School of Business: the Albert W. Niemi Center for Economic Growth and Leadership Development, the Brierley Institute for Customer Engagement, the Edwin L. Cox Business Leadership Center, the JCPenney Center for Retail Excellence, the Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship, the Folsom Institute For Real Estate, the Kitt Investing and Trading Center, the Don Jackson Center for Financial Studies, the National Center for Arts Research, the O'Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom and the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking.
There’s also the EnCap Investments & LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center that provides students with hands-on training in non-traditional asset classes, including hedge funds and private equity funds, and the Maguire Energy Institute that promotes the study of policy, marketing, and management issues related to oil, natural gas and electricity.
It is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
Among a substantial list of notable alumni are: Gerald J Ford, Dallas-based billionaire; Aart J. de Geus, co-founder, chairman and CEO, Synopsys; Art Greenhaw, founder and producer of Art Greenhaw Records a Grammy Award-winning record label; Clark Hunt, Chairman of the Board of the National Football League's Kansas City Chiefs; William J. O'Neil, Founder of the business newspaper Investors Business Daily; Mark Shepherd, Chairman and CEO, Texas Instruments and Phil Wilson, former Texas Secretary of State.
