Thomas Gilligan, business school dean at University of Texas, will lead Stanford's Hoover Institution

Gilligan, a
scholar of economics and political science, will assume his post on Sept. 1. He
will succeed John Raisian, who has served more than 25 years at the helm of the
public policy research center.
Thomas W.
Gilligan, dean of the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at
Austin, will be the next director of the Hoover
Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University,
Stanford President John Hennessy announced.
Gilligan, a
scholar of economics and political science, will assume his post as the Tad
Taube Director of the Hoover Institution on Sept. 1. He will succeed John
Raisian, who announced his intention to depart after more than 25 years at the
helm of the public policy research center.
"Tom
Gilligan brings to the Hoover Institution a blend of academic scholarship and
leadership experience, as well as government and military background, that will
be a tremendous asset to the institution and to Stanford broadly,"
Hennessy said. "Tom has already spent time at Stanford as a National
Hoover Fellow and as a visiting faculty member. He knows us well, and we look
forward to welcoming him back in this new capacity."
Gilligan said he
looks forward to returning to Stanford, where he was a National Fellow at the
Hoover Institution in 1989-90, and taught business economics as a visiting
faculty member at Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1989-90 and again in
1994.
"The Hoover
Institution is one of the world's premiere research centers devoted to the
advanced study of politics, economics and international affairs," Gilligan
said. "I am honored to be named as Hoover's next director and look forward
to advancing its mission and reputation."
Since 2008,
Gilligan has served as dean of the McCombs School, one of the largest business
schools in the country. Prior to his appointment at the University of Texas,
Gilligan held several key administrative roles at the Marshall School of
Business at the University of Southern California between 1987 and 2008,
including interim dean, vice dean of undergraduate education, director of the
PhD program and chair of the Finance and Business Economics Department. He
taught economics at the California Institute of Technology from 1984 to 1987.
"Tom
Gilligan is the ideal leader to build upon John Raisian's impressive legacy.
His broad capabilities will help capture the Hoover Institution's extraordinary
future potential to develop and cultivate policy ideas defining a free
society," said Tom Tierney, chair of the 120-member Hoover Board of
Overseers, which approved Gilligan's nomination along with the Board of
Directors of the Herbert Hoover Foundation and the Stanford Board of Trustees.
John B. Taylor,
professor of economics at Stanford, a Hoover senior fellow and chair of the
10-member search committee, said, "Tom Gilligan brings extensive
administrative experience and knowledge of policy research to build on and
expand the impressive accomplishments of the Hoover Institution during John
Raisian's directorship."
Gilligan's
academic research has focused on microeconomics, applied price theory,
industrial organization, antitrust economics and public choice. He was a staff
economist at the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House under
President Ronald Reagan. He also served as a Russian linguist in the U.S. Air
Force from 1972 to 1976.
Gilligan
received his BA in 1979 at the University of Oklahoma and his PhD in economics
at Washington University in 1984.
Outgoing Hoover
Director Raisian assumed his role leading the institution in 1989. An economist
who has specialized in labor market and human resource issues nationally and
internationally, Raisian will remain a Hoover senior fellow and pursue an
agenda of research and writing pertaining to current public policy issues on an
indefinite basis.
The Hoover
Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University is a public
policy research center devoted to the advanced study of economics, politics,
history and political economy – both domestic and foreign – as well as
international affairs. With its eminent scholars and world-renowned library and
archives, the Hoover Institution seeks to improve the human condition by
advancing ideas that promote economic opportunity and prosperity and secure and
safeguard peace for America and for all.
Media Contact
Lisa Lapin,
University Communications: (650) 725-8396, lapin@stanford.edu
Jennifer
Mayfield, Hoover Institution: (650) 847-7250, jennymayfield@stanford.edu