Overview

• The College of Commerce’s undergraduate program enrolls 4,564 students and the graduate program has 2,264 students for the 2009-2010 academic year.

• The college employs 148 full-time and 191 part-time faculty members, representing a diverse blend of leading scholars and distinguished business professionals who bring real-world experience to the classroom.

• The college is located in the DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., on DePaul’s Loop Campus, near the heart of the city’s financial district. DePaul reopened this historic downtown landmark building in 1993 after a $70 million renovation. Graduate business courses also are offered on DePaul’s O’Hare (Des Plaines), Rolling Meadows and Naperville campuses. 

• The College of Commerce was among the first 10 business colleges in the United States when it began offering classes in 1913. It also was the first business school in downtown Chicago and the first business school at an American Catholic university when it opened. The college launched its master of business administration (MBA) program in 1948.

• The Kellstadt Graduate School of Business is named for Charles H. Kellstadt, the former chief executive officer and chairman of Sears, Roebuck & Co. In 1992, the directors of the Kellstadt Foundation Trust donated the trust’s $10 million to DePaul.

• The College of Commerce has 51,509 living alumni, more than any other school or college at DePaul.

• The top corporate employers of the college’s alumni include: JP Morgan Chase & Co.; AT&T; Motorola, Inc.; Northern Trust Corp.; Deloitte; Harris Trust & Savings Bank; Allstate Insurance Co.; and Accenture.

• The average salary of Kellstadt Graduate School of Business graduates was $80,817 in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

• Prominent business leaders who earned DePaul degrees include: ComEd CEO Frank M. Clark; Smurfit-Stone Container Corp. CEO Patrick J. Moore; Driehaus Capital Management CEO Richard Driehaus; Navistar International Corp. Chief Executive Daniel Ustian; and Kellogg Co. Chairman James Jenness; Turtle Wax Inc. Chairman Sondra Healy.

Distinctions

• The part-time MBA program was ranked ninth in the nation by U.S.News & World Report in its “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2010” guidebook.
  
  
• Entrepreneur magazine and The Princeton Review ranked DePaul's undergraduate entrepreneurship program eighth and the graduate program ninth nationally among more than 2,300 schools surveyed for this year's "Best Schools for Entrepreneurs".
  
  
• The College of Commerce's undergraduate program was ranked second among Illinois programs in Business Week's 2009 rankings. DePaul's program was ranked No. 71 among the 101 leading undergraduate business school programs throughout the United States that participated in the magazine's survey.
  
  
• Crain’s Chicago Business ranks DePaul’s MBA program No. 3 in Chicago’s highly competitive business school market of more than 25 programs.  Kellstadt’s real estate and accountancy MBA tracks were rated No. 1 by recruiters and the real estate and entrepreneurship concentrations scored best among alumni in the ranking released in October 2008. 
  
  
• Fortune Small Business’ rating of “America’s Best Colleges for Entrepreneurs” published in 2007 praised DePaul’s entrepreneur programs for emphasizing “learning by doing.” The magazine ranked DePaul’s undergraduate entrepreneurship program as one of the 25 best programs in the country, and the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business was named among the nation’s top 26 “b-schools with entrepreneurial flair” for its entrepreneur MBA concentration. Outreach programs offered by the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and Center for Creativity and Innovation also were applauded by the magazine. Management Professor Gerhard Plaschka was chosen as a top professor.
  
  
• Wicklander Business Ethics Chair Patricia Werhane was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics 2008 by Ethisphere. The magazine honored her for wielding "significant influence in the field of business ethics" and her work to make ethics a required subject at the business school.
  
  
• Seven members of the accounting faculty have won Outstanding Accounting Educator of the Year awards from the Illinois CPA Society.

Programs

• The college has six major divisions: the School of Accountancy and Management Information Systems and the departments of economics, finance, marketing, management and real estate.

• Nine undergraduate business majors are offered: accountancy, business administration, e-business, economics, finance, management, management information systems, marketing and real estate.  A tenth major – in hospitality leadership – is scheduled to debut in fall 2009.

• Kellstadt offers part-time day and evening, full-time day, and weekend MBA programs, as well as hybrid courses that blend face-to-face instruction with distance learning.

• The school’s career-focused MBA curriculum allows students to tailor their educational experience to meet professional needs by choosing from 30 concentrations. Concentrations are available in: applied economics; banking; behavioral finance; brand management; customer relationship management; e-business; entrepreneurship; finance; financial analysis; financial management and control; general business; health sector management; human resource management; international business; integrated marketing communication; investment management; leadership/change management; management accounting; management information systems; managerial finance; marketing management; marketing research and analysis; marketing strategy and planning; new product management; operations management; real estate finance and investment; sales leadership; sports management; and strategy, execution and valuation.  A combined graduate business and law degree also is offered with DePaul’s College of Law.

• Designed for professionals with a specific and focused career path who are looking to enhance their expertise, specialized master’s degrees are offered by Kellstadt in accountancy, business information technology, computational finance, e-business, finance, human resources, marketing analysis, real estate and taxation.

• The college’s programs are accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business - International and the North Central Association.

• The College of Commerce is home to a variety of centers and institutes with research, education and outreach missions. They include: the Arditti Center for Risk Management, Center for Financial Services; Coleman Entrepreneurship Center; Driehaus Center for Behavioral Finance; Driehaus Center for International Business; Institute for Business & Professional Ethics; Interactive Marketing Institute; Kellstadt Center for Marketing Analysis and Planning; Management Development Center; Real Estate Center; Center for Creativity and Innovation; and Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation.

• Opened in 1993, the Driehaus Center for International Business at the College of Commerce organizes study abroad seminars on business topics and facilitates faculty exchanges with 26 academic institutions around the world. DePaul’s university-wide Study Abroad Program also offers undergraduate and graduate students a range of study abroad options, from programs lasting two to three weeks to a term-long study in another country.

• DePaul’s MBA program in Bahrain opened in 2001 through a partnership with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF). When launched in 2001, it was the first MBA degree program in the Persian Gulf taught by faculty from an accredited U.S. business school.

• In 2006, the business school and partner Pan Asia International Education Center opened an MBA program in Taiwan.

About the Dean

• Ray Whittington was named dean of the College of Commerce and Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in 2006. Whittington joined DePaul in 1997 as an accountancy professor and Ledger & Quill Director of the School of Accountancy & Management Information Systems. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Houston, master’s degree in accounting from Texas Tech University and bachelor’s degree in business from Sam Houston State University. Prior to joining the faculty at DePaul, he was director of the School of Accountancy at San Diego State University. From 1989 through 1991, Whittington was the director of Auditing Research for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and he previously was an auditor for KPMG.

The college’s Web site is http://commerce.depaul.edu.