The first dean of the business school, E. H. Johnson, served for over 20 years (1919–1940).

The business school’s first home was in the Emory Law Building.

Emory’s business school awarded its first BBA degrees in 1926. Eight students received business degrees.

In 1932, during the Great Depression, faculty and staff salaries were cut between five and eleven percent.  By 1937, the school was able to restore faculty and staff salaries to pre-Depression levels.

The Business School Alumni Association was formed in 1951, and its first president was S. Russell Bridges, a 1933 graduate.

In 1945 Walter H. Rich, the president of the Rich Foundation donated $250,000 and pledged $100,000 more for the construction of a building for the business school. The building was named the Rich Memorial Building in memory of the 3 brothers who had founded Rich’s Department Store in 1867.

Emory’s School of Business Administration was admitted to the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business in 1949, the only one of 14 petitioning schools admitted that year.

In 1940, the school had a total of seven faculty members.

The MBA program began in 1954.

A chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma, the national scholastic honor society in business and commerce, was installed in January 1950.

In 1950, a group of Emory business students formed a Student Marketing Club, which planned and carried out a clinic on market research.

In 1952, the school became an institutional member of the American Management Association.

In 1954, the school launched an Advanced Management Program (AMP) for upper-level executives at the invitation of the Associated Industries of Georgia, the forerunner of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.  The AMP would emerge as one of the best in the nation.

In 1958, the school launched an Advanced Management Program for upper-level executives, a six-week course held every winter at Sea Island, GA, that featured faculty from Harvard, MIT, Emory, and other universities. The program lasted for nearly three decades and won the business school national recognition.

An evening MBA program in economics was first offered in 1960.

When the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business began accrediting master’s programs in 1961, Emory’s MBA was in the first group approved.

In the winter quarter of 1968, the business school inaugurated a MBA program for a career in professional accounting.

During the 1970s, the school developed a plan to allow students to complete both the MBA and juris doctor degrees within four years instead of five.

The business school also established a Center for the Study of Corporate Policy and Direction, the first of its type in the U.S., in 1970.

In 1977, the school dedicated a $2 million addition and renovation of the Rich Memorial Building, incorporating two important new features – the Management Center and the Computer Center, which boasted its own 32K minicomputer, two microprocessors and direct links to the University’s main system.

When the school introduced the Executive MBA in 1979, it was the only one of its kind in the South at the time.

In the early Eighties, the school claimed another distinction by partnering with the Candler School of Theology to offer the U.S.’s first business and divinity degree program.

During the Eighties, the school joined the New York Management Center, an independent agency that sponsored seminars with participating universities.

In the late 1980s, Julie Barefoot and Andrea Hershatter did both BBA and MBA admissions out of one office, as well as student services for both programs.

The Evening MBA program began in 1992 with 50 students.

In 1994, the business school was renamed for Roberto C. Goizueta and was subsequently dedicated on September 26, 1997.  In the following year, the school received two major gifts – a $20 million bequest from Goizueta’s estate and an additional $20 million from the Robert W. Woodruff Foundation in honor of the late Goizueta.

The business school’s namesake, Roberto C. Goizueta, was born in Cuba.

The 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta spurred Emory President, James T. Laney, to advocate that the school increase its international focus.

The Goizueta PhD program began in 2002.  Two years later, Goizueta began construction on the Goizueta Foundation Center for Research and Doctoral Education, a $33.4 million addition.

In 2002, the Modular Executive MBA program was formed.

Ron and Barbara Balser donated the Balser Art Collection to the school in 2006.

In 2007, the first group of students received their PhDs in business administration.

In its 90-year history, the school has had over ten Deans.