Leading Forward: Ty Henderson

Shapes the undergraduate experience for tomorrow’s business leaders

At the McCombs School of Business, undergraduate education is not just about choosing a major. It is about building the skills, mindset, and experiences that shape future business leaders.

Ty Henderson, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Associate Professor of Marketing, works across academic advising, student life, career engagement, and faculty teams to shape the BBA experience from day one through graduation. His work focuses on ensuring students graduate with both the foundational knowledge and the professional skills needed to succeed in a rapidly evolving business environment.

Title: Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Associate Professor of Marketing
Works closely with: BBA Program Office, academic advising and student life, career engagement, curriculum committees, faculty across departments, corporate partners and recruiters, student leadership, alumni boards, and Mulva Hall design and construction team
Years at UT: 19
Hometown: Iowa
Education: B.S. ’97, B.A ’98, Iowa State University; MBA ’02, University of Iowa; Ph.D. ’07, University of Wisconsin-Madison
First job: Walking beans (yes, that is a job in Iowa), CTO for a software/hardware startup

What’s one change you’re driving in the BBA core curriculum that will matter most for outcomes over the next few years?

Texas McCombs BBA will launch our Professional Growth Sequence courses in Fall 2026. This collection of courses that students will take across their four years at UT reflects a collaborative effort to engage students in an intentional professional-development journey. Texas McCombs BBA has long emphasized the knowledge and skills that make our students workforce ready, and the Professional Growth Sequence coursework will allow students space and time to further develop and refine those skills. Self-reflection, communication, responsibility, collaboration, global awareness, and professional identity are some emphasis points. We are particularly excited about our new senior capstone focused on getting our students ready to impact business, wherever that first step after graduation takes them. This curricular innovation was possible because of the depth of talent at our school and the strong partnerships we cultivate across our academic departments.    

How do you balance breadth and depth in the BBA program to ensure critical thinking, data literacy, and communication skills while also letting students specialize in areas such as analytics or entrepreneurship?

One point we emphasize to all incoming BBA students is that they all enter with the same major — undecided business. Our view is that the important first decision is to commit to business education and then to develop a plan of study that develops a comprehensive understanding of business while also giving space to experience a comprehensive research university. We do this by having our students engage with the source disciplines at the University that inform business thinking. Next, we harness the comprehensive excellence of our business school to deliver a BBA business core that challenges our students to be quantitative decision-makers and strategic thinkers. There is still enough space in a degree plan to pursue a specific business field major while also earning a specialized minor either inside or outside the business school. This flexibility within this structure model delivers value to our students because our faculty are at the cutting edge of their fields and bring their expertise into the classroom with dynamic curriculum. Faculty excellence drives industry-relevant business minor specializations and the ongoing curricular refresh within our core and major-specific classes. In addition, we are embracing both the promise and challenge of integrating artificial intelligence into business education.

How has your experience with the Mulva Hall project been informed by your work with the BBA program?

The Mulva Hall project has been more than a decade in the making, and I feel fortunate to play a role in this transformative building project for the school. When working with the design and construction teams, I try to think about representing the varied interests of all the individuals who will work and learn inside the building. As a faculty member, I think about pedagogical considerations when talking about classroom layout and research collaborations when discussing office functionality. As associate dean, I get to interact with staff members from different units at our school in my role, and that keeps their needs in mind as discussion of operational aspects of the building unfold. My interactions with our amazing BBA students place their aspirations into frame as we move forward with construction. My role as associate dean has positioned me to think about all these constituencies as we make this important change in our physical space that will impact our school for years to come.

• Hidden campus gem: Calhoun Hall arcade connecting South Mall to Harry Ransom Center, always shady and cool
• Favorite Austin hangout: Lobby at Fonda San Miguel, instant transport to a more relaxed state of mind
• Burnt orange gear: McCombs polo, being part of a great team and representing the brand