Situated in the midst of the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges, and flanked by Lake Washington and the Puget Sound, the University of Washington Foster School of Business is centrally located in one of the most beautiful, literate, technology focused and vital economic regions in the world.

Seattle and the Northwest – where innovation and intellectual rigor come to work in a suit one day, and jeans and sandals the next.

We work here. We play here. We engage the world here. This region of natural beauty and the launching pad for globally recognized companies – Amazon, Boeing, Costco, Microsoft, Nintendo of America, Nordstrom, Paccar, Real Networks, REI, Russell Investments, Starbucks, T-Mobile and Weyerhaeuser – is where we teach the future of business and the next generation of business leaders.

Our faculty, students and graduates are determined to make a difference at every level—in the classroom and the boardroom, in the community and the office, in Seattle and across the globe. We educate the future leaders of established companies and game-changing start-ups that will invent the next disruptive technology.

 

 

 

The future of business leadership is at Foster

At Foster, we’re focused on understanding leadership’s dynamic role in organizations and teams, exploring best practices, and infusing that knowledge into every student experience. For undergraduates, our formal introduction to leadership training is the BUILD Program. For Full-Time MBA students, it’s LEAD Week. Our work-compatible MBA programs are leadership focused from day one – learn more about Foster’s approach to leadership through our MBA Portal.

To advance our research and understanding of this critically important quality in business and become the best business school in the nation in leadership education, we’ve created the Center for Leadership and Strategic Thinking. Bruce Avolio, one of the nation’s top scholars on transformational leadership, is heading up the center’s efforts to build evidence-based models, methods, and measures of authentic leadership development and provide students with leadership experiences that work.

In this video, Dan Turner, Associate Dean for Masters Programs and Executive Education, explains how leadership and strategic thinking are at the core of the Foster School.

Strategic thinking as a core discipline

What is the key to business pedagogy: academic rigor or on-the-job relevance?  Many business school curriculums are like a pendulum swinging between the two. Foster has taken great pains to weave strategic thinking across the tapestry of the core business disciplines—integrating strategy into the curriculum while providing myriad arenas to test skills “in the field.”

Noteworthy research, excellent instruction, and innovation

At Foster, you’re taking classes from intellectuals that excel as teachers.

Our faculty produce influential research, teach with award winning clarity and style, and win distinction among their peers. Recently, The Chronicle of Higher Education placed our faculty 10th in research productivity and Foster’s Accounting Department was ranked first in the world in research productivity in top journals.

Combine that faculty with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Northwest and you have the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Ranked seventh in the 2009 Top 25 Graduate Programs in Entrepreneurship by the Princeton Review/Entrepreneur Magazine, CIE brings business and scientific minds together in the classroom and provides the framework and incentives to create thriving businesses.

This is our business – ground-breaking research and comprehensive scholarship, great teaching and a flexible curriculum in which the fundamentals of business are leveraged into a world class education by some of the most distinguished experts in their fields.

The heart of a vibrant economic engine

You know the vibe: Socially conscious, accepting, highly collaborative with a deep regard for talent and hard work above all else. That’s Seattle and that’s Foster. After all, a great business school like Foster doesn’t just crop up anywhere; it’s built from the local turf outward to the world.

Foster has deep ties to hundreds of Seattle and Puget Sound start-ups rivaling in number and success the famed centers of technology and biotechnology innovation: Silicon Valley and Boston; and the more recent flashpoints: Shanghai and San Diego.

Entrepreneurship and innovation run through our collective veins: Among the greats listed above, add Blue Nile, Sharebuilder, Farecast and Redfin. Also, add the fact that the region’s Alliance of Angels is the most active angel investment group in the country.