The Mendoza College of Business was founded in 1921 by a Holy Cross priest named John F. O'Hara. Rev. O'Hara later became the president of the University and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. "The primary function of commerce is service to mankind," said Rev. O'Hara when discussing the College mission. "Business has a code of ethics based very largely on divine principles. When this code is followed, commerce can and does advance civilization. When it is overlooked by selfish interests, individual or national, every sort of injustice, from petty thievery to world war, may result." Four years earlier, in 1917, Notre Dame had become the first university in the United States to launch a four-year program of study in "foreign commerce."

Carolyn Woo, Martin J. Gillen Dean and Ray and Milann Siegfried Chair in Entrepreneurial Studies, joined the College in June of 1997. In March of 2000, the College of Business received a naming gift from Network Appliance executives, Tom and Kathy Mendoza. The Mendoza College of Business includes over 2200 students in the following degree programs: Bachelor of Business Administration, Master of Business Administration, Executive Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Accountancy, Master of Nonprofit Administration (MNA).

The University of Notre Dame was founded in 1842 by a French priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross, Rev. Edward Sorin. Today, Notre Dame is rated among the nation's top 25 institutions of higher learning in surveys conducted by U.S. News & World Report, Princeton Review, Time, Kiplinger's and Kaplan/Newsweek and one of a handful of truly international universities, with a student body of more than 8,000 undergraduate and 3,000 graduate students drawn from all 50 states and over 100 foreign countries.