The college was conceived at
Ashridge House in 1921, when the house was acquired by a trust established by
Bonar Law, a future UK Prime Minister; in 1929 it became a "College of Citizenship", established to help the
Conservative Party develop its intellectual forces in struggles with left-wing organisations such as the
Fabian Society. It became a cross between a
think-tank and a training centre and had
Arthur Bryant as its educational adviser. After the
Second World War, the "College of Citizenship" was briefly re-established but in 1959 it was re-launched with a new focus on management training, taking the name Ashridge Management College. In 2015, the then Ashridge Business School operationally merged with
Hult International Business School, an international business school with campuses in seven cities around the world. As part of the merger,
Ashridge Business School changed its name to Ashridge Executive Education. ==Organization and administration==