Auburn engineers abroad: How one electrical engineering alumnus has grown his global perspective

“It’s been a wonderful gift to work with people from around the world. It always helped me keep a sense of humility and awe.”

Jeff Henderson, ’81 electrical engineering, experienced international travel and living from a young age. But when he moved to Auburn in the late 70s, he experienced a different type of culture shock as he adjusted to the Southern lifestyle.

While pursuing his bachelor’s degree, he met students with various backgrounds. Though his engineering professors were mainly focused on impacts to the state of Alabama and the region, his experience with the Naval ROTC program grew his international perspective.

Henderson spent four years as a nuclear submarine officer before moving to Silicon Valley where his career in technology took off with Hewlett Packard (HP). In his early years, his international business endeavors primarily took place in Japan, China, Malaysia and Thailand.

“What it taught me was that Auburn already had a known reputation in engineering communities outside the state of Alabama,” Henderson said. “There were many reasons for that, including the many astronauts, engineers and physicists that had come from Auburn.” 

After managing teams in in engineering, manufacturing, marketing and sales, Henderson spent the remainder of his career with various HP spinout companies.

“I eventually became known as a ‘spinout person’, or a person who takes technology companies and spins them out so they can grow in a way they couldn’t grow as part of the original company,” he said. “It was very exciting for me.”

Growing new technology companies often results in partnering with and acquiring businesses wherever the needed technology or products are located. As a result, he led the acquisition of companies through Asia and Europe, and eventually decided to retire in Europe.

“I chose often in my career to go into the role where I would learn the most,” Henderson said. “Sometimes that was a lateral move or an advancement move, but I was naturally curious to learn new businesses and technologies. You learn well at Auburn how to solve problems so I often applied myself to the biggest problem I could find.”

One such problem included working on complex business issues with individuals from different counties, continents and language backgrounds. Henderson found that a sense of curiosity often opened the most doors.

“When you’re meeting someone from another culture, you’re more open to understand who they are and how they’re thinking,” he said. “It makes it easy to ask questions. When you’re meeting someone for the first time, it’s natural to try and find common ground and build from that.”

Henderson and his wife, Anica, are now retired in her native Germany, but Henderson has remained more active than ever. When he isn’t mountain climbing – or klettersteig –  biking, running, golfing, reading or cooking, he serves on many boards, primarily of small tech companies.

His advice for young entrepreneurs?

“Anything is possible,” he said. “Choose a career path that provides you the opportunity to learn and experience the most. Use your time at Auburn to learn well all the fundamentals being taught by your professors, because your future education during your career will be built upon those fundamentals. Learning how you best learn new concepts is the probably the most important thing you have the opportunity to learn while you are at Auburn, because your pace of learning will only increase once your engineering career begins.”