Vision, Mission and History
Transformation starts with exploration.
For tens of thousands of students, the Eller College has been the perfect blend of challenge, community and opportunity. This combination is the foundation of our approach to business education. Learn more:
Our Vision
Starting with exploration, we are committing to building on institutional excellence, embracing a culture of diversity, developing partnerships, and creating synergies, ensuring our growth and sustainability for years to come.
Our Mission
The Eller College of Management’s mission is to discover and share new knowledge that shapes the future of business and to educate the next generation of responsible, global leaders who embody the changing business world and possess the knowledge and drive to impact it.
The University of Arizona Core Values
Integrity: Be honest, respectful and just
Compassion: Choose to care
Exploration: Be insatiably curious
Adaptation: Stay open-minded and eager for what's next
Inclusion: Harness the power of diversity
Determination: Bear Down
The Eller Way
As students, faculty and staff members at the Eller College of Management, we embrace a long and sustained culture of excellence. Our school is nationally recognized, and our contribution is critical to our continued elevation. Our standards are high and call us to:
Integrity
Do the right thing 100 percent of the time.
Excellence
Consistently surpass ordinary standards.
Innovation
Creatively anticipate and leverage change.
Determination
See challenges as opportunities.
Inclusion
Create a community where everybody thrives.
Our History
1913
The University of Arizona established a Bachelor of Science in commerce… and six years later, a Master of Arts in economics.
1922
W.T. McClelland started New Modern Dairy with 20 cows and a Model T. The venture was later renamed Shamrock Dairy.
1927
The Department of Business was formally created. Six years later, with 550 students and 14 faculty, the University created the School of Business and Public Administration. (This turned into a college in 1943.)
1938
The School takes up residence in North Hall.
1946
Karl Eller enlists in the U.S. Army.
1948
The College is accredited by the Association for the Advancement of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and Karl Eller returns to his studies at UA.
1949
Norm McClelland graduates and starts working at Shamrock Dairy, which he and his sister Frances later take over from their father. That same year, the Bureau of Business Research was established.
1952
Karl Eller and Joan Stevens graduate and marry.
1953
The MBA degree started.
1958
The Department of Accounting was established.
1961
The first Ph.D. program was offered.
1962
Karl Eller purchases the Arizona operations of New York-based ad company Foster and Kleiser. Six years later, he formed Combined Communications, which developed into seven television stations, 14 radio stations, 12 outdoor advertising companies, and two daily newspapers… all bought out by Gannett in 1979-80.
1974
Professor Jay Nunamaker launched the nation’s first MIS curriculum, which has since consistently been a top-5 program in the country.
1982
The College’s 70-member National Board of Advisors was formed.
1983
Karl Eller became chairman and CEO of Circle K, and the Karl vEller Center for the Study of the Private Market Economy opened, later becoming the McGuire Entrepreneurship Program, eventually endowed as a center by Chris and Carol McGuire.
1984
Professor Vernon Smith established the field of economic sciences and in 2002 won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his work.
1985
The Eller College established the Center for Management Information (CMI) with a $2 million grant from IBM.
1987
The Karl Eller Graduate School of Management is officially established. Siblings Norman and Frances McClelland pledge $2.5 million toward the construction of a new facility.
1992
McClelland Hall was born. A $20-million 180,000-square-foot project with 152 offices, classrooms, labs, centers, an auditorium, and an atrium to house thousands of students and more than 120 faculty.
1997
Karl Eller sells Eller Media to Clear Channel for $1.15 billion.
1999
The entire college is renamed as the Eller College of Management.
2001
The Undergraduate Professional Admissions process starts.
2004
Karl Eller was inducted into the American Advertising Hall of Fame.
2005
The Executive MBA launches in Phoenix.
2010
The MISOnline launched the first of what will eventually become six online programs. That same year, the Center for Management Innovations in Healthcare was created.
2011
The Center for Leadership Ethics is launched.
2017
Eller’s first micro-campus was started in Cambodia.
2018
The Department of Accounting is designated as the School of Accountancy.
2020
The School of Accountancy is formally named The Dhaliwal-Reidy School of Accountancy.
2023
The Department of Business Analytics is formally named The HSLopez School of Business Analytics.
Husband, father, grandfather, executive, entrepreneur, veteran, Arizonan, alumnus—Karl Eller was born in 1928 in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Tucson.
He graduated high school in 1946, enlisted in the U.S. Army and served his country for three years before enrolling at the University of Arizona. Two days after his 1952 graduation, Karl married the love of his life, Joan “Stevie” Stevens ’52 BS (Education).
About a decade later, Eller Outdoor Advertising was born. Eventually, Karl went on to lead the Gannett Company and Columbia Pictures, serving as board chairman and CEO. In the early 1980s, he became chairman and CEO of the Circle K Corporation, building it into the second largest convenience store operation in the country. Later, he became chairman/CEO of Eller Media Company, sold to Clear Channel Communications in 1997. In the course of his career, Karl weathered his share of downturns and setbacks with determination and style, seeing each as an opportunity for transformation.
An early believer that entrepreneurs could be developed through education, Karl provided the founding gift to create the Chris and Carol McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, one of the first centers of its kind in the United States. In 1998, The University of Arizona School of Business was renamed the Eller College of Management in recognition of his enormous impact on the university, the college and the thousands of students who walk through its doors every year.
The pillars of the college reflect his foundations:
- The pursuit of excellence
- An entrepreneurial spirit
- A “relentless pattern of calculated risk taking, innovation and integrity”
Karl passed away in 2019 at the age of 90. He was immensely proud of the college that bears his name, and all its programs, activities, initiatives and people. Members of the Eller community, collectively, strive to, every day, act with integrity, think entrepreneurially, embrace change and transform challenges into opportunities. In this way, we honor Karl’s memory, live up to his name and continue his legacy.