Tim Hanley was fortunate enough to have great role models early in his career and over the years, adopted a philosophy of leadership based on the simple concept of servant leadership. “I define that as leading by helping everyone around you succeed and serving them – not having them serve you,” he said.
As the Dean of the College of Business at Marquette University, Hanley has helped the Marquette College of Business become a real destination nationally. Marquette University is a major university with a College of Business ranked nationally. The mission is to develop future business leaders with the knowledge to succeed and the principles to be strong leaders with an ethical moral compass.
In his role, Hanley has been instrumental in raising funds to build a fully donor-funded $60 million business school that opened its doors in January 2023. “We now have perhaps the most state-of-the-art facility in the country,” said Hanley. “This has helped us recruit two of our largest freshman classes in recent history.”
Hanley said he is very proud to bring this new facility to life. “In just our first five months, we have hosted executives from over 100 companies here in our new space,” he said. “We describe this new home as a game changer, not just for the College of Business, but for the entire university.”
Bringing 40 years of experience to the college, Hanley said his goal is to help grow future leaders.
“An important part of my role here is to ensure that our faculty have everything they need to meet the ongoing and heightening expectations of our stakeholders (the employers that hire our students),” said Hanley. “This includes providing them access to company executive relationships that will help them provide more real life experiences for our students and funding to allow them to create new offerings.”
Hanley said that a titan is one who takes on roles beyond his or her current executive role and makes the community a priority. That’s why he continues to be deeply engaged in the Milwaukee community. Hanley has served on many nonprofit boards and currently serves as the past Chair of the Christo Rey Jesuit Board. He also recently joined the Board of the Seton Schools.
As a second-year titan, Hanley said it’s an honor and something that makes him feel a bit humbled. “While I do feel a bit humbled, at the same time I feel even more of an obligation to give back,” he said.
For committing to mentoring the next generation of leaders, Hanley has been named a Titan 100 for the second year in a row.
