Academic ascent: Joseph Harroz Jr

The will to succeed is a trait that unites every business leader in the world. But often, so consuming is this desire to achieve success that many executives don’t have the time to consider what true success actually looks like.

Rarely do you find an executive who has such a considered and principled perspective on this as Joseph Harroz Jr, President of the University of Oklahoma. With a distinguished career spanning multiple industries, his main goal has been to make a difference in the lives of others.

“When someone gets to the end of their career and they look back, they’re always most proud of the things they did that lifted and helped other people,” Harroz says. “It’s always the same, regardless of area.

“I know that all of us in executive leadership roles are going to wind up in that same position.”

And in his current role, Harroz is firmly on track to achieve this ambition and help make the world a better place.

“Universities sit in a unique position. We can really uplift the lives of others and help play a role in lifting entire economies,” he says.

A varied career

Even before he took the helm at the university, Harroz had already served with distinction.

“I’ve been President here at the university for six years, but before that I spent nine years as Dean of the College of Law,” he reveals.

“I’ve served in various roles here, including General Counsel, and taught for more than 25 years.”

This depth of experience as an academic and an educational administrator is just one chapter in a truly exceptional life. His resume includes a career as a lawyer, a stint at a publicly traded healthcare company, board service at multiple financial service companies and even time on Capitol Hill as a legislative director for a United States senator.

This has given Harroz a unique arsenal of leadership tools and the ability to combine the best facets of the public and private sectors.

“A lot of what I do is informed by taking business principles, those that are typical in the for-profit world, and trying to apply where appropriate those principles to a public research university setting,” he explains.

Unforgiving circumstances

Accepting the role of President in 2019 proved to be a true test of his leadership credentials, as Harroz was thrown into the heart of a storm raging across the nation.

“It was a time of disruption and drama, and not just at the university but in higher education as a whole,” he remembers. “We’d had three new presidents in 18 months at the university, and I was appointed initially on an interim basis.”

In his previous role as Dean of the College of Law, Harroz had witnessed firsthand the national trend of plummeting enrollment and revenues.

“Between 2010 and 2015, we saw nearly half of law school applicants in the United States disappear from the market. This was the harbinger of what was about to take place in higher education as a whole,” he recalls.

“State funding for public research universities was being cut and demand for college places was falling. We were going into a major downmarket.”

Harroz was immediately confronted by the scale of the task that lay ahead of him.

“I’d never led an organization of this size and complexity, which today has more than 36,500 students, nearly 18,000 employees and a top line of around US$5.5 billion,” he admits.

“I realized very quickly I couldn’t be everywhere. We didn’t have a strategic plan and we didn’t have a clarity of purpose, so we set about establishing that.”

Executing change

It was while he was deep in the process of strategic planning that Harroz had a sudden realization of the need for the University of Oklahoma to return to its most fundamental principles.

“There was this epiphany I had where I asked myself, ‘What are we going to be great at and why?’” he says.

“The university’s purpose is to change lives. So we had to consider where we could best achieve this impact and how we could achieve true excellence in these areas.”

Bearing this in mind, Harroz and his team took the decision to pivot the university’s focus to specific areas, selecting discrete spaces within healthcare such as cancer, diabetes and neuroscience, as well as stepping up investments in severe weather research, energy, aerospace, defense and national security.

With this steely determination of the board to maximize impact, the university has begun to attract more top-level academics and more undergraduates.

“The best leading indicator of success is the size and quality of your first-year students, and we’ve seen a 30 percent growth in three years, while across the country, rates have declined,” he points out.

“We’re on our fastest growth trajectory in 50 years.”

Driven by purpose

Although the rate and scale at which Harroz has overseen the recruitment of talent at the university are undeniably impressive, perhaps his proudest achievements would be the rejuvenation of its health wing, OU Health.

“The academic health system was struggling at best,” he says. “It has now undergone a massive restructuring, and it is now flourishing. Importantly, it is helping a lot of people who otherwise wouldn’t have access to healthcare.

“It will be roughly US$88 million invested this year into the research enterprise, which is going directly to producing lifesaving cures and treatments.”

This is in keeping with the university’s central mission, Harroz explains, which is to keep making a positive impact on society. By doing so, he will be making his future self proud.

“Our overall purpose is to change lives,” he says. “The University of Oklahoma has the opportunity to lift the lives of so many locally, but also nationally and globally.

“What gets me out of bed every day is that I have the fortune to be a part of an organization that makes a difference.”