The University of Texas at Austin has tapped Bradley Staats as the next dean of the McCombs School of Business, bringing the UT alumnus back to Austin after nearly 30 years in industry and academic leadership. He begins the role on July 1, stepping in for Lillian Mills, who has led McCombs since 2020.
The appointment was announced by UT Austin News, which notes that Staats serves as the Ellison Distinguished Professor of Operations and senior associate dean for strategy and academics at UNC Kenan-Flagler and was selected after a national search. William Inboden, the university’s executive vice president and provost, called Staats’ return “deeply meaningful” and said he looks forward “to partnering with him” as McCombs works to strengthen industry ties and student opportunities. According to the announcement, McCombs includes about 700 faculty and staff and roughly 7,000 students.
What Staats Brings to McCombs
Staats is known for research that connects operations, analytics, and behavioral science, and he is the author of "Never Stop Learning," as highlighted by Harvard Business Review. His professional site reports that he founded the UNC Center for the Business of Health and that his work spans healthcare, technology, and service industries. Before moving into academia, he worked at Goldman Sachs and in venture capital, and at UNC, he helped launch program expansions that included an executive MBA in Charlotte.
Campus Context and What’s Next
Staats follows Lillian Mills, who will return to the Department of Accounting as a distinguished faculty member, according to UT Austin News. The university credited Mills with leading record-breaking philanthropic growth, noting that the What Starts Here campaign reached nearly $660 million, and with advancing plans for Mulva Hall, a $425 million, 17-story undergraduate hub covered by the Austin American-Statesman. Under her tenure, the school rose in several rankings and expanded initiatives in AI, sports analytics, and entrepreneurship, handing Staats a school that is already running at a brisk pace.
Why Local Business Will Be Watching
The announcement also laid out priorities that include deepening faculty-industry partnerships and expanding student experiential learning in health, AI, and entrepreneurship. McCombs has been stretching its footprint beyond Austin, including a Houston hub for working-professional MBAs, a move previously reported when the school snapped up the former Marathon HQ for a Houston MBA hub. Staats’ background in healthcare and executive education suggests he will lean on those kinds of partnerships to broaden research and talent pipelines.
Staats will officially take the helm on July 1, according to university communications. For now, McCombs faculty, alumni, and area employers will be watching to see how the new dean juggles fundraising, curricular change, and the fast-growing tech and health sectors that surround the Austin campus.
