Daniel Coit Gilman, Hopkins' first president, established the tradition of opening some classes and lectures to the general public. These included the presentation of new and sometimes controversial ideas by Henry L. Gantt—class of 1880 and inventor of the Gantt Chart—who would become a major figure in the scientific management movement. In 1916, Hopkins added business and engineering courses to a separate division of the university offering collegiate-level instruction to part-time students. Energetic individuals such as Gantt fostered the growth of the new field of business administration and the concept of "working smarter" to enhance efficiency and profits. Following World War II, the Hopkins program produced more CPAs than any other school in Maryland.
The Master of Science in Management Science program, focusing on the application of new findings in quantitative analysis and general systems theory, became the first graduate level business degree at Hopkins in 1961. This evolved into the management and economics-focused Master of Administrative Science program, which first graduated students in 1974. By 1988, enrollment in the program had expanded rapidly. Ninety students completed the MAS program in 1979; by 1990, more than 400 MAS degrees were awarded. In 1991, concurrent with launching the Master of Science in Business degree, other new degrees emerged: Master of Science programs in Real Estate, Organization Development and Human Resources, Information and Telecommunication Systems for Business, Marketing, and Finance; and a wide range of graduate certificate programs focusing on specific industries or fields. Major changes in the late 1990s were the offering of the Master of Business Administration degree and the collaboration with other Hopkins schools to offer Master’s/MBA programs in Medical Services Management, Biotechnology, Nursing, and Public Health.
On December 4, 2006, Johns Hopkins University trustees, in response to a $50 million gift from William Polk Carey, voted to establish a new business school dedicated to producing innovative leaders with broad, interdisciplinary knowledge. The new Carey Business School opened January 1, 2007, continuing the Johns Hopkins tradition of bringing innovative business management programs to the ever-changing workplace.
