Mark Skousen School of Business
Grantham University’s Mark Skousen School of Business, renamed for Dr. Mark Skousen in April 2005, offers the existing business school curriculum, a Master of Business Administration, and various undergraduate business degree programs. Students will have the opportunity to experience Dr. Skousen’s unique blend of applied and theoretical courses in business, finance, and economics.
Skousen’s textbooks offer a special emphasis on the Austrian School of economics, finance, and management, as reflected in the works of management guru Peter F. Drucker, Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek, and modern-day practitioners such as John Mackey of Whole Foods Market and Charles Koch of Koch Industries.
“Dr. Mark Skousen is a distinguished scholar and is considered by many leading academics and business leaders to be one of the top free-market economists in the world,” said Thomas M. Macon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Grantham University. “Moreover, Dr. Skousen has demonstrated a personal commitment to helping adult students gain access to high quality college education opportunities which is consistent with the mission of Grantham University.”
Reaction from members of the academic and business communities has been very positive:
“Congratulations on a further expansion of Mark Skousen’s empire! He is an able, imaginative, and energetic economist. A firm supporter of free markets, Dr. Skousen has written extensively on how they work and the obstacles they face.”
- Milton Friedman, Nobel laureate in economics
“I’m excited that Grantham University is naming its Business School after Mark Skousen. Mark represents everything a successful B school should produce – a skilled investor, creative entrepreneur, and a first-rate thinker, writer and practitioner of sound economics. By choosing Mark Skousen as its torchbearer for teaching sound business and economics, Grantham University will be building its school on a very solid foundation.”
- John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods Market
“I am delighted to hear about Mark Skousen’s involvement with Grantham. My students at Columbia Business School were not only enthusiastic about his lectures, but eager for more: ‘He takes complex issues and expresses them so clearly’ and ‘I’ve never heard his approach before at Columbia!’ I believe his success stems from the fact that, not only is he a first-rate economist, but also he is an outstanding historian and applied economist. He is not dogmatic, but open and thoughtful, related to issues facing managers today.
Mark has worked for the government, non-profits, and for-profit corporations. Since 1980, he has published a successful investment newsletter, and has consistently ranked as one of the best teachers at Rollins College in Florida and now here at Columbia. He is a prolific author, a successful businessman, investor, consultant, world traveler, and most importantly a good family man, with a lovely wife Jo Ann and five children.
There is no question in my mind that Grantham business students will gain a superior business degree under Professor Skousen’s guidance.”
- John O. Whitney, Professor Emeritus in Management Practice Columbia Business School
About Mark Skousen
Mark Skousen is a professional economist, financial advisor, university professor, and author of over 20 books. In 2004, he joined the faculty of the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University and now teaches economics at Columbia’s Barnard College. From 2001 to 2002, he was president of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) in New York and from 1986 to 2003, taught economics, finance and history at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He is currently Director of Economic Education at Young America's Foundation (www.yaf.org).
For twenty-five years, Dr. Skousen has been editor in chief of Forecasts & Strategies, a popular award-winning investment newsletter published by Eagle Publishing in Washington, D.C. (www.markskousen.com). He is also editor of two trading services, Skousen Hedge Fund Trader and Skousen High Income Alert, as well as his own Web site, www.mskousen.com. He edited the investment series, “Secrets of the Great Investors,” with Louis Rukeyser as narrator.
Skousen was an economic analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA); consultant to IBM, Hutchinson Technology, and other Fortune 500 companies; columnist for Forbes magazine; and has written articles for the Wall Street Journal, Liberty, Reason, and The Journal of Economic Perspectives. He has appeared on ABC News, CNBC Power Lunch, CNN, Fox News, and C-SPAN Book TV.
Dr. Skousen earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics at Brigham Young University and his Ph.D. in economics and monetary history from George Washington University. He has lived in eight nations, and traveled and lectured throughout the United States and in 65 countries. He and his wife, Jo Ann, and five children have lived in Washington, D.C.; Nassau, the Bahamas; London, England; Orlando, Florida; and New York.
