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.
ABOUT THE HOOVER INSTITUTION: 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 mankind.
CONTACT:
Lisa Lapin, University Communications: (650) 725-8396, lapin@stanford.edu
Jennifer Mayfield, Hoover Institution: (650) 847-7250, jennymayfield@stanford.edu
