Chapman University to Launch New School of Management

Chapman University’s newly elevated Argyros College of Business and Economics is getting a new management school as the private California university looks to bolster its business programs.

The Doy B. Henley School of Management — named after school alum, entrepreneur, and Board of Trustees Chairman Emeritus Doy Henley — will launch within the Argyros College thanks to a donation from Henley, according to a release from the school.

That new management school comes amid a drive by Chapman to make its Argyros College one of the country’s top business schools and as part of a larger, ambitious Inspire fundraising effort to raise $500 million. Chapman has already raised $370 million as part of that campaign.

The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics was renamed to the George L. Argyros College of Business and Economics thanks to a $10 million gift from its namesake’s family last year. School leaders said at the time that the expansion of the business school to a college would provide an umbrella for other schools within Chapman.

Henley’s donation to create a new management school is set to do just that.

The management school will serve to build on Chapman’s robust existing management instruction programs: Argyros has one of the top-ranked private master of business administration (MBA) programs in California, according to the school’s website, and touts a unique, immersive and interactive opportunity in its graduate business, accounting, and real estate programs.

While the school didn’t state the exact amount of the donation that will launch a management institute in his name, Henley has long supported Chapman and its business school ambitions: Last year, he donated $1 million to establish an endowed fund to set up innovation initiatives.

That endowed fund will help Chapman prepare business students for high-demand, rapidly developing areas, Dean Henrik Cronqvist said in a release at the time.

Data analytics, machine learning, AI (artificial intelligence) — those subjects are baked into some of our classes, he said.

The Henley School of Management will join the recently added Burra School of Accounting and Finance within Argyros. That new accounting and finance school was set up in early 2023 thanks to a $5 million gift from longtime Chapman donors Jim and Kay Burra to help kick off the Inspire campaign.

Chapman isn’t the only school to bolster its business school with major donations over the past year. Similar donations to business schools across the country have spurred innovative, tech-heavy developments in the past year.

Purdue University, with its reimagined Daniels School of Business, received $50 million for a new undergraduate institute with a tech-focused curriculum in early 2023 — and another $50 million as part of a major donation from the Lilly Endowment in 2024 for a new building.

The University of Utah received a $65 million commitment from the Stena Foundation to create a financial technology (fintech) center in early 2023. Fintech is set for explosive growth over the next decade, and that commitment includes $1 million in investments into 10 or more student-led fintech companies each year over a decade.

The University of Kansas (KU) School of Business received an anonymous $50 million donation last year, the largest gift in its history — and the anonymous donor highlighted the school’s strategic planning process, including its new master’s in business analytics degree, in making that donation.

KU Endowment President Dan Martin said in a press release at the time that the anonymous gift will have a ripple effect that extends well beyond this current moment in time.