As chief information officer, Mark D. Henderson is responsible for the development, implementation and delivery of technology that supports the academic, business and research missions of the University of Pittsburgh and its more than 40,000 students, researchers, faculty and staff across five campuses. He oversees more than 300 full-time and 150 student staff members in Information Technology who are responsible for the University’s central IT functions and services — including academic systems, communication and collaboration, enterprise solutions, information security, IT professional services, personal computing, research computing, software distribution and technology infrastructure.
Henderson serves on the board of directors for the Urban League of Greater Pittsburgh, as well as the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research, Pennsylvania’s only statewide research, education and community network, which serves a collaborative community of more than 135 education, health care, economic development, library, government and public media organizations.
Henderson has more than 40 years of experience comprising both higher education and private sector information technology. Corporate appointments include Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Procter & Gamble and GE, where he worked as a leader in Global Shops IT Operations and Global Network Operations.
Henderson previously served as chief information officer at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There, he created and leveraged technologies to fulfill the university’s strategic plan, implemented efficiency initiatives, and partnered IT staff with faculty members to improve support and win research grants from government-based and private grant institutions. Prior to arriving at the University of Illinois, Henderson was interim vice president and chief information officer for information technology services at Case Western Reserve University. His other roles in higher education include serving as the interim vice president and chief information officer at the University of Maryland and director of infrastructure services at the University of Cincinnati.
Henderson grew up in Pittsburgh and earned a Bachelor of Science in business administration, with a concentration in information systems, at Xavier University in Cincinnati.