[2][3] Prior to founding Bain & Company, he was a vice-president at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

[6][2][3][7] His father was a small food wholesaler who had little formal education[8] and came from a farming family with eleven siblings.

[5] Later, he attended East Tennessee State College, majoring in engineering,[4] for two years before transferring to Vanderbilt University, where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

[2][8] In the early 1970s, Bain was considered internally at Boston Consulting Group to be Henderson's eventual successor.

[11] Bain's new company diverged from other consulting firms of the time by focusing on longer assignments.