About Us

The Washington Campus

The Washington Campus is a non-profit, non-partisan, higher education consortium based in Washington, D.C. Consortium members and other partnering institutions include some of the world’s leading universities and business schools.

The Campus’ mission is to ensure that executives and students alike are given the opportunity to better understand the interactions of business, government, and public policy, in order to enhance their effectiveness as organizational leaders. With a variety of experiential programs and credit-granting courses, The Washington Campus is a unique organization that plays an essential role in management education.

Vice President Walter Mondale speaking with Washington Campus MBA students in 1979
The Washington Campus was established in 1978 by a group of senior government officials, business executives, and academics.

Led by The Honorable Bill Seidman, former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the Resolution Trust Corporation, this distinguished group founded the Campus because they saw the need for current and future business executives to have a much better understanding of the dynamics of government and public policy, especially the impact on their businesses, industries, and on the economy overall. This mission is even more critical today.

The Washington Campus Executive Education, Executive MBA, MBA, and other graduate and undergraduate specialty programs immerse both U.S. and international participants in the vibrant political and business environment of Washington, D.C.

During these one to five day programs, students learn directly from policy makers and policy influencers, including current and former members of Congress, Executive Branch officials, regulatory authorities, and business and association executives, as well as experts from the media, think tanks, embassies, global institutions, and non-profit organizations.

At the consortium's 25th Anniversary celebration in 2003, Vice President Richard Cheney noted:

Most of all, The Washington Campus is valuable because it exposes future business leaders to the work of government. And that exposure, we think, is absolutely vital.

Many business executives don’t begin to understand the constraints and pressures that policymakers face when they have to make a decision or evaluate a proposal. And for their part, many government officials have never met a payroll, have never run a business, have never had to deal with government regulations on the receiving end. They have no concept of what the world of business is really like…

That’s why The Washington Campus has been so important. The Campus is helping bridge that gap between the world of business and the world of politics. Business leaders learn to see the world as Washington policymakers see it, and policymakers gain a better understanding of the realities of business life.”

Since its founding in 1978, more than 50,000 current and future business leaders, from all over the U.S. and from around the world, have participated in The Washington Campus’ unique experiential courses and seminars.

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan with Washington Campus MBA students
Former Washington Campus President David Gergen and Chairman Bill Seidman, with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, at the Campus’ 25th Anniversary celebration, chaired by former President Gerald R. Ford and First Lady Betty Ford.