The Graduate School of Business christened its new home, the Knight Management Center, at a lively April 29, 2011 celebration that began with a formal dedication ceremony on the school's new town square. The event marked the end of a three-year building project that produced a facility that will enable the business school to move forward and grow in the areas of curriculum and innovation.

"We're now able to turn the physical spaces that have been created here into intellectual learning places," Graduate School of Business Dean Garth Saloner said of the 8 new buildings on the 12.5-acre site.

Stanford President John Hennessy thanked the donors, many of whom were present at the dedication ceremony, for the new center, "which is not only a gift for students today, who have already fallen in love with the place, but a gift for students of the future."

Philip H. Knight, who earned his MBA at the school in 1962 and for whom the Knight Management Center is named, said that in the coming decade the school will redefine management. "People come up to Penny [his wife] and me to thank us for making this possible," Knight said. "I tell them it is an honor for us to be associated with a special institution."

Thousands of visitors, alumni, and members of the Stanford community toured the
8 buildings after the dedication ceremony and had the opportunity to see some of the
100 classrooms of various sizes that enable teaching a new curriculum in flexible learning spaces.