Dr. Thomas W. Gilligan, the E. Morgan Stanley Chair in Business Administration and professor of finance and business economics at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles, has been appointed dean of the McCombs School of Business.
The appointment of Gilligan, who from February 2006 to April 2007 was interim dean of the Marshall School of Business, is effective Sept. 1, said Dr. Steven Leslie, university provost. He said the selection of Gilligan followed a nationwide search by an 18-member committee headed by Dr. Michael Granof, a professor in the McCombs School of Business.
Gilligan will replace Dr. George W. Gau, whose six-year appointment as dean of the business school ends in August.
Granof said there was remarkable unanimity among members of the committee, as well as other people who met Gilligan in the selection process, that he has the scholarly credentials, administrative experience and charisma they would like to see in the dean of their business school.
“There is no question that the McCombs School of Business has the potential to be one of the truly top business schools in the world and Thomas Gilligan has the ability and skills to take us in that direction,” Granof said.
“Tom Gilligan is a visionary leader,” said William Powers Jr., president of The University of Texas at Austin. “In cooperation with our outstanding faculty, he will take the McCombs School to a new level of distinction.”
Gilligan said his family is excited to join The University of Texas at Austin community.
“I am honored and invigorated by the prospect of leading the McCombs School of Business to even more accomplishments and greater prominence,” Gilligan said.
