Ivey Business School, commonly shortened to Ivey, is the business school of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. Ivey offers full-time undergraduate (HBA), MBA, MSc, MFE and PhD programs and also maintains two teaching facilities in Toronto and Hong Kong for its EMBA and Executive Education programs. It is credited with establishing the nation's first MBA and PhD program in Business.^[1]

The business school was officially created in 1949, when Western University created a separate faculty as the School of Business Administration.^[2] In 1995, the school was renamed the Richard Ivey School of Business after an $11 million donation by the Richard M. Ivey family. The school is named after Richard G. Ivey (father of Richard M. Ivey). In 1998, Ivey was the first North American business school to open a campus in Hong Kong offering an Executive MBA program at the Cheng Yu Tung Management Institute.^[3]

In 2010, Ivey became the first North American business school to offer the CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education, joining the likes of London School of Economics, HEC Paris, ESADE, and Bocconi University.^[4]

In 2013, the School abbreviated its name to "Ivey Business School" and updated its visual identity.^[5] The legal name of the Faculty of Business at Western University, however, remains Richard Ivey School of Business.^[6]

On May 6, 2019, former IBM executive Sharon Hodgson became the Dean of Ivey.^[7]

The Ivey Business School offers a number of programs and degrees:^[8]

The Ivey HBA (Bachelor of Arts in Honors Business Administration) was the first degree program in business at the University of Western Ontario. A class of six men were the program's first graduates in 1923.^[3]

In 2010, the HBA program grew to 525 students with the final program size of 610 students in place since 2013.^[9]

The HBA program is a second-entry, two-year program that enrolls students who have completed two years of undergraduate study (in any faculty at any recognized university). First year Ivey students, known as HBA1s, are typically in their third year of university. Previously, prospective students applied for admission to Ivey during their second year of university. In 1998, Ivey introduced the Advanced Entry Opportunity status (AEO), a conditional pre-admission status offered to secondary school students. Advanced Entry Opportunity (AEO) students may study in any faculty of interest at the University of Western Ontario for their first two years of university.^[10]

The HBA1 year has no elective course work. HBAs are placed into "sections" of 76 students and work with the same classmates and professors in the same classroom year-round. The curriculum includes courses in finance, accounting, marketing, operations management, organizational behavior, and general management. The HBA2 year is less structured with students taking four required courses along with elective courses that tailor to individual interests.^[11]

The Ivey full-time MBA was created in 1948 and was Canada's first MBA program as well as the first one offered outside of the United States. Its first class graduated in 1950. It was modeled on the Harvard Business School MBA as a two-year program. In 2006, it was converted to a 12-month program and was relocated from the University of Western Ontario campus to the Spencer Leadership Centre.^[12] A Health Sector Stream is offered through the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership.^[13]

With over 25,000 alumni in 105 countries. Ivey^[14] offers networking opportunities.

The Ivey MSc is a direct-entry program requiring no previous full-time work experience. The Ivey MSc program is based on the case method and global learning opportunities, designed to prepare the student for an international career.

In December 2009, Ivey was selected as the first Canadian partner in the CEMS Global Alliance in Management Education and in 2012 was named the CEMS School of the Year.^[18] This gives Ivey MSc students the opportunity to participate in the Master of International Management program with students from 29 other schools in the alliance. Students register as Ivey MSc students and pursue the CEMS MIM program concurrently.

In 2016, a second stream in the MSc program was launched in Business Analytics. In both streams of the program, students undertake 3 terms of academic study and 1 term placement in an industry internship.

The University of Western Ontario began offering a PhD in Business Administration in 1961, Canada's first PhD in business. The program has focused on study in eight disciplines: Finance, General Management, Information Systems, Management Science, Managerial Accounting, Marketing, Operations Management and Organizational Behaviour.^[19]

The Ivey Executive MBA (EMBA) was founded in 1991 with the addition of a Hong Kong-based program and a remote video-conference program in 1995. In 2007, the program's headquarters was relocated to a new facility in downtown Toronto named the Tangerine Leadership Centre.^[3] The program provides a part-time MBA program for working managers with at least seven years of work experience. The program consists of four in-class days (Thursday to Sunday) once per month. Classes continue for three consecutive terms, each five months long.^[20]

Ivey also offers five undergraduate business courses, organized under the Business Foundations Group.

MFE or Master in Financial Economics is a collaborative program between Ivey Business School, Western Economics and Math/Stat department.

Ivey operates on four campuses:

On September 10, 2009, Ivey broke ground on a new 235,000-square-foot (21,800 m2) faculty building on the Western campus in front of Brescia College on former soccer fields. The project cost approximately $110 million dollars, with the federal and provincial governments contributed $50 million in funding with the remainder funded by private donations.^[22] The building was to be designed by Hariri Pontarini Architects of Toronto.^[23] In September 2013, Ivey officially moved from their old building to new Richard Ivey Building located across campus.^[24]

With over 8,000 cases in their collection, Ivey Publishing adds more than 350 classroom-tested case studies each year.^[25] Ivey is among the largest producers and publishers of cases all around the world, just behind Harvard Business School.^[26] Recently, Ivey signed deals with Indian Institute of Management Calcutta to design and publish case studies.^[27][28]

Ivey Business Journal^[29] (IBJ) started in 1933 as the Quarterly Review of Commerce. The publication transitioned from a quarterly magazine to a bi-monthly web publication in the 2000s and is read in over 150 countries. The current editor of the journal is Thomas Watson.^[30]

Ivey Business Review (IBR) is an undergraduate publication dealing with business strategy, written and managed by students in the honours business administration program at the School. It is published twice per academic year, in December and April, and is managed at the school's main campus in London, Ontario. Published copies of IBR are available in print formator on the publication's website.^[31] Since its inception, the magazine has published eight issues containing over 100 total articles and involving more than 150 students.^[32]

The Review is an original research–based publication with all content created for the magazine through collaboration between the writers and members of the editorial board. It focuses on providing actionable recommendations for specific businesses, industries, business models, strategies, or events, rather than management techniques for managers and leaders.^[33]