Matthew Myers, Dean, SMU Cox School of Business

Invest: sat down with Matthew Myers, dean of the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University (SMU), to explore the recent developments and strategic initiatives at the school, including the new Miller Business Quadrangle, the rapid growth in student enrollment, and the importance of building strong partnerships with the North Texas business community.

What is the significance of the new Miller Business Quadrangle, and how are you seeing students respond to it?

The David B. Miller Business Quadrangle has been a focal point of ours for several years now. After breaking ground in May 2022, we held our first classes in our newly renovated and expanded facilities in August 2024. The 2024-2025 academic year feels like a real transition point on campus, both for business education and for the number of students coming to the Cox School. We’ve doubled the size of our graduate programs and increased the incoming class of undergraduates by almost 40% in the past year alone. So, this building is coming at the perfect time. It not only increases our capacity but also represents a strong commitment to business education and multidisciplinary learning. 

One of the great things about the Miller Quad is its central location on campus, which symbolizes how business education can contribute to multidisciplinary efforts across the university. We’re excited about the new classes coming into this building and the chance to start a new generation of business education at SMU Cox, especially at a time when business education is more popular than ever.

What key strategies contributed to your accelerated success, and what do you have planned next?

In 2017, when we started putting our strategies together, we were fortunate to have a good sense of where business education was headed over the next decade. We were taken by surprise by some developments in higher education beyond just COVID, including social issues that have been pressing on campuses around the world. But for business education, we had a strong grasp of the trends. Being in Dallas has played a huge role in our success, and we are supported by the North Texas community and beyond.

It’s important to acknowledge that we didn’t have a crystal ball; many things fell into place for us. However, we knew that business education would become increasingly popular, particularly at the undergraduate level. We recognized that SMU’s growth would be tied to the growth of the Cox School. Our aim was to elevate the SMU brand from being seen as regional to being a part of the national conversation in business education. 

We did a lot of groundwork, spreading the word about what the Cox School and SMU offer, both in the United States and internationally. This brand-building has been key. It helped generate excitement, drew philanthropic support, bolstered research initiatives, and improved student placement opportunities in Dallas and North Texas. Building the brand has been crucial to our success and achieving our 10-year goals in just seven years. It’s an ongoing effort in a competitive environment, but our team has done a remarkable job enhancing the Cox School’s reputation, and this effort will continue over the next decade.

Considering the collaborative environment here in North Texas, are there any particular partnerships that have been instrumental in promoting the brand and fostering growth?

We’ve focused on enhancing strategic partnerships across various industries beyond traditional sectors like oil and gas and real estate. Partnerships in healthcare, such as with McKesson, and in venture capital and private equity, have been crucial. We’ve shifted from having transactional relationships to strategic ones. 

These partnerships have been instrumental in helping us with everything from curriculum development and student recruitment to advancing our research initiatives. Without these strategic alliances, many of the successes we’ve achieved would have taken much longer. The pace of business is accelerating, and we have to keep up with it. These partnerships have been a key component in our ability to do so.

What strategies are being used to attract and retain students and faculty in this competitive market?

One major strategy is the Cox School’s new building. It might seem like a small thing, but it’s not. Practically speaking, it provides faculty and students with a space that supports modern pedagogies, collaborative learning, and the kind of teamwork that’s essential in today’s business environment. 

Philosophically, the building represents a dedication to excellence in business education. Top-notch faculty and the best students look for institutions that prioritize excellence in teaching and research. The new building reinforces this message. Additionally, as SMU grows, it demonstrates our commitment to local relationships and the community. We aim to be a global leader in higher education while maintaining strong roots in North Texas. You have to win locally before you can succeed globally. 

By showing our dedication to enhancing opportunities and partnerships within North Texas, we’re building a stronger SMU, a stronger Cox School of Business, and a stronger Dallas. This reciprocal relationship is vital, and it’s one that we actively promote through our engagements with community and business leaders.

How would you describe the overall sentiment toward higher education in Texas compared to the rest of the country?

Although I’m not a native Texan, I’ve come to appreciate and embrace the entrepreneurial spirit here. Texas has a unique mentality that’s still about taking risks, collaborating with diverse groups to get things done, and a strong desire to win. This attitude makes Texas higher education, particularly business education, appealing to many across the country looking for a place to build a career, start a business, and succeed.

This spirit extends beyond business and into education, nonprofits, and philanthropy. The philanthropic support in Texas is remarkable, and it’s crucial for higher education’s survival today. SMU and the Cox School have been fortunate to raise significant funds even through challenging times like COVID and economic downturns. This philanthropic drive, focused on achieving excellence, has played a significant role in our recent successes.

What growth opportunities do you see for the Cox School, and what plans are in place to continue expanding?

As we think about the next decade, our focus will be on the quality of academic programs. Higher education is a people business, a human capital business. To be among the best universities and business schools, we need to attract and retain the brightest minds, both among faculty and students. 

Diverse, high-caliber cohorts contribute significantly to the quality of education. Students learn as much from each other as they do from their professors. To continue building the quality of our programs, we need to invest in scholarship dollars and develop programs that are competitive with top institutions like Stanford, Duke, Harvard, and Yale. 

SMU and the Cox School of Business have the potential to aspire to this level, and focusing on program quality and faculty recruitment will be key in the coming years.

How is SMU Cox addressing balancing affordability with high-quality education to help students?

That’s a question that keeps many of us up at night. Ensuring affordability while maintaining high standards is a constant challenge. We’ve been fortunate to raise significant endowment funds for scholarships, allowing us to support students who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend. 

We’ve significantly increased the number of veterans at Cox by offering scholarships to supplement the GI Bill. We’ve also launched programs like Subiendo, which means ‘rising’ in Spanish, supported by the Crum family in Houston. It’s designed to bring high school students from underrepresented areas to SMU for a summer program, exposing them to the opportunities available at the Cox School and the rest of the university.

By providing these students with a week-long experience on campus, we can encourage them to consider SMU for their higher education and support them with scholarships. This initiative has been successful, with several students from the first cohort now studying at SMU on scholarships. Our goal is to continue these efforts, ensuring that all students, regardless of background, have the opportunity to receive a top-tier education at SMU.