The origin of the International Association of Jesuit Business Schools (IAJBS) can be traced back to the early 1990s when Tom Bausch, Dean of Marquette University's College of Business Administration, and John Wholihan, Dean of Loyola Marymount University's College of Business Administration, attempted to form an international network of business deans from Jesuit schools. Bausch and Wholihan hoped that the shared mission and values of Jesuit business schools would produce global partnerships and a synergistic exchange of ideas and resources. In 1993 Bausch and Wholihan organized the first international forum of business deans, held in Barcelona, Spain. The forum would be repeated in subsequent years, although the theme of each gathering and its location changed. By 1995 low attendance by the business deans as well as the need to develop internationally-minded faculty led the network to shift its focus from "Deans" to "Schools." The IAJBS was formally established through a memorandum of understanding in 1995, with John Wholihan serving as president and Tom Bausch acting as executive director.

The basic mission of the IAJBS remained unchanged throughout the years: to facilitate communication and the exchange of ideas and resources among Jesuit business schools with the common goal of preparing students, formed in the Ignatian tradition, to be leaders in the global economy.

For information on the current operations of the IAJBS, visit the Association's website.

Scope and Content

The collection contains records donated by Tom Bausch in 2010. Bausch served as executive director of the IAJBS from its founding until 2005. Although Bausch remained associated with the group until his retirement in 2010, he accumulated far fewer IAJBS records after 2005, resulting in a sparser documentation of the group's later years. The IAJBS records are arranged into three (3) series. The arrangement scheme within each series varies.

Series 1: Administrative Files, 1993-2008 (0.6 cubic feet) consists of administrative records that are more general in nature and less forum-specific than the materials in Series 2. The series is arranged alphabetically by folder title. Of particular interest are the records of the meetings of the executive committee and/or board of directors which provide a more strategic view of the organization.

Series 2: Forums, 1990-2017 (4.0 cubic feet) constitutes the heart of the collection and documents the IAJBS's primary activity: the planning and hosting of annual gatherings of business leaders from Jesuit schools. The series is arranged chronologically by forum and then alphabetically by folder title.  For the sake of consistency the finding aid/folder inventory does not contain the original folder titles; instead the original titles were written verbatim on the collection folders. Coverage and content varies from forum to forum, although basic agenda information is available for each of them.  Bausch did not retain a draft of every presentation made at the meetings.

Series 3: Video recordings, 1996, 2000, undated (0.2 cubic feet) consists of a small collection of VHS video recordings from the fourth and seventh annual forums as well as an undated video on Jesuit education.

Series 4: Related/Collaborating Organizations, 1978-2017 (0.35 cubic feet) consists of a small collection of documents from other Jesuit educational organizations and conferences.

Series 5: Electronic Records, 2009-2013 consists of a small collection of documents and photographs from the IAJBS Forums, as well as two Colleagues in Jesuit Business Education conferences.  The documents consist primarily of session papers and presentations in PDF and PowerPoint format.