OU President David L. Boren Announces $30 Million in Gifts to Benefit OU Students in Engineering and Related Fields
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| President Boren announces historic $30 million in gifts to the College of Engineering |
The resources are being made possible through major gifts from Jim Gallogly of Houston and Peggy and Charles Stephenson of Tulsa.
A New Academic Building
In addition to serving the full College of Engineering community, the new academic building to be constructed will house the new School of Biomedical Engineering, which will integrate engineering and medicine and will further develop three areas of existing strength in the College of Engineering: biomedical imaging, nanomedicine and neuroengineering.
A New School
The School of Biomedical Engineering is being created to respond to the increase in biomedical engineering jobs anticipated as the world population continues to grow and age. Two years ago, CNNMoney cited biomedical engineering as the top jobs field for the period 2010 to 2020 with median pay of $87,000 and 10-year growth of almost 62 percent in employment opportunities.
To help create the school, Peggy and Charles Stephenson have pledged a major gift from the Stephenson Family Foundation.
A New Name
In appreciation of the gifts, Boren said he will recommend to the OU Board of Regents that they recognize the donors by naming the College of Engineering and the new academic building in Gallogly's honor and that the new school be named in the Stephenson's honor.
Thank you, Jim Gallogly
Gallogly, who serves on the Board of Visitors for the OU College of Engineering, worked for Phillips and later Chevron Phillips Chemical and ConocoPhillips in a career spanning nearly 30 years. Upon joining Phillips in 1980, he held various roles in exploration and production, refining, chemicals, legal and finance, including international assignments. He rose to senior vice president of chemicals and plastics, vice president of olefins and polyolefins and vice president for North America production. He joined Chevron Phillips Chemical as president and chief executive officer in 2000. Six years later, he joined ConocoPhillips, serving first as executive vice president of refining, marketing and transportation. In 2008 he was named executive vice president of exploration and production.
He then worked for LyondellBasell, one of the world's largest plastics, chemical and refining companies, serving as CEO from 2009 until his retirement in 2015.
Gallogly has served on the boards of directors of the American Chemistry Council and the Society of Chemical Industry. He also has served on the board of directors and executive committee of Junior Achievement of Southeast Texas. An OU law alumnus, he is a member of the Oklahoma, Texas and Colorado bar associations. For his leadership in his profession, OU awarded Gallogly an Honorary Degree in 2012.
Thank You, Peggy and Charles Stephenson
Peggy Stephenson is executive director of the Stephenson Family Foundation. Charles Stephenson is a 1959 OU petroleum engineering graduate and retired chairman of the board, president and CEO of Vintage Petroleum Inc., which was sold in 2006 to Occidental.
The Stephensons, who grew up in the southeastern Oklahoma community of Antlers, are longtime partners in philanthropy, parenting and life. Their gifts have helped fuel OU's rapidly growing Research Campus in Norman benefitting research progress and economic development in the state of Oklahoma. In 2002, their gift to OU helped build a Research and Technology Center, which transformed an empty field into OU's now-burgeoning Research Campus. Four years later, they made a lead gift to help build a Life Sciences Research Center, and in 2010, the Stephensons presented OU with a major gift to benefit cancer programs for all of Oklahoma and to create the Stephenson Cancer Center.
