Kay Henry has joined the Olin School of Business as associate dean and director of Executive M.B.A. programs.
Henry has a wealth of experience in executive and business education. She recently returned from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where she spent two years as assistant dean at Zayed University’s College of Business Sciences. She spent seven years at Rice University where she developed, and then directed, the M.B.A. for Executives program. Henry also spent several years in Boston where she taught management communication at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and ran executive programs at Harvard University’s Institute for International Development.
From Rolla, Mo., Henry has traveled or lived on nearly every continent. She said she’s happy to be returning to her home state. Her parents are getting older and she was eager to return to executive programs, so the opportunity to join Olin was a “no-brainer.”
Being gone for more than 20 years, however, Henry forgot how delightfully small the community can be. A week before she officially started her new job at WUSTL, she was helping serve food for a dinner in Rolla that her husband, Nas Senoussaoui, a chef, had catered.
“I was standing there serving chicken turnovers, when this man asked me if I was Kay Henry, the new dean of the E.M.B.A. program,” Henry said. “It turns out he’s an Olin alumnus! I guess I had my nametag on and he had already read about me and seen my picture. I couldn’t believe it. And now we have a great resource in Rolla!”
Henry said that the experience is representative of how dedicated Olin’s E.M.B.A. alumni are in general.
Henry has high hopes for the program, which recently has been revamped. She hopes to boost the number of women and minorities who attend the program. She also looks forward to working with Olin faculty to keep refining the new curriculum, adding and changing material as the market demands it.
Leadership communication is a particular interest of hers.
“Being able to communicate ideas and strategy within an organization — these are skills that are crucial for an effective leader. E.M.B.A.’s focus on high-level management issues provides a logical vehicle for honing these skills,” Henry said.
Henry added that she sees no reason why Olin’s Executive M.B.A. couldn’t be one of the top programs in the country.
“We have the faculty, the leadership, the facilities and the drive — and we’re attracting the caliber of students we need to preserve and enhance our reputation in the marketplace. I am very fired up about the potential of the Olin E.M.B..A.,” Henry said.
It’s that kind of zeal that made Henry an obvious choice for the job, said Ken Bardach, associate dean and the Charles and Joanne Knight Distinguished Director of Executive Programs.
“Kay absolutely burst forth during the search process,” Bardach said. “Her experience and credentials were fantastic, but really it was her warmth, enthusiasm and collegiality that made her such a great candidate.”
Now that Henry is settling into her new post, she knows she has her work cut out for her, starting with getting to know the St. Louis business community — a potentially difficult task for most newcomers.
However, she realizes that her Missouri roots will probably come in handy.
“I’ve always considered myself a Midwesterner at heart,” Henry said. “It’s funny for me now, after all the places I’ve been, that being from Rolla — and having graduated from Rolla High School — is a real asset!”