Jim Gallogly was installed as the 14th president of the University of Oklahoma July 1, 2018. A 1977 alumnus of the OU College of Law, Gallogly is the first-ever CEO from a Fortune 500 company to lead the university.
He has a distinguished track record in running large, complex organizations, and is known as someone who invests in mentoring, inspiring and teaching teams to achieve exceptional results. His mantra is, “We will pursue excellence in everything we do,” and this is the same approach he brings to the University of Oklahoma.
The former chairman and chief executive officer of LyondellBasell, Gallogly is bringing his experiences to OU with several goals. He wants to broaden the graduate program; double the amount of research; grow OU-Tulsa; and focus on the human capital of the university.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1974 and a J.D. degree from the OU College of Law in 1977. Gallogly also completed the Advanced Executive Program at the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., in 1998.
A native of Canada, Gallogly is one of 10 children. He and his wife, Janet, have been married 43 years and have three daughters, as well as four grandchildren.
Mohammad Farzaneh moved to the United States in 1978 and made Oklahoma their new home. Both Jalal and Mohammad received their bachelor and Master of Architecture from the University of Oklahoma (OU), and they are on the board of visitors at the OU College of International Studies and the OU College of Architecture. In 1981, the Farzaneh brothers started their home building company, now Oklahoma’s largest home building company “Home Creations”.
Jalal and Mohammad believe in education, especially higher education. They started by endowing a chair, a professorship and an instructorship at the University of Oklahoma, OU and recently endowed a chair and 4 professorships at Oklahoma State University OSU. The Brothers endowed 5 annual scholarships at the University of Central Oklahoma. The Farzaneh brothers help many charities, including American Red Cross, American Heart Association, American Cancer Association, Center for Children and Families, Habitat for Humanity, and many other organizations.