Biography: Thomas W. Keefe
Thomas W. Keefe, J.D., began his term as the eighth president of the University of
Dallas on March 1, 2010.
President Keefe believes firmly that a liberal education is integral to humanity and
human culture, and that it is vitally important for American and Western civilization
to survive and flourish. President Keefe was drawn to UD by the academic rigor and
enthusiastic Catholic fidelity found here, which know no parallel.
A national and international leader on issues related to Catholic higher education,
President Keefe attended an international congress at the Vatican on Catholicism in
the Americas in December 2012 and he serves as a member of a working group of
select Catholic university presidents that is a committee of the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops on Catholic higher education. In the last year, he has
visited six countries on four continents as a representative of the University of Dallas.
Under President Keefe's leadership, UD has enjoyed steady growth in enrollment,
welcoming record-breaking freshman classes in three of the last five years, and announcing its largest gift ever ? $12
million from MBA graduates Satish and Yasmin Gupta to build a new home for the Satish & Yasmin Gupta College of
Business: SB Hall.
A student of Catholic institutions from kindergarten on through college, President Keefe's own life was transformed
by Catholic education. He majored in history at Benedictine College before earning a J.D. at the University of Kansas.
Twenty years ago, he changed his career as an attorney and corporate executive in order to return to Catholic higher
education. Before coming to the University of Dallas, President Keefe was vice president of university advancement at
St. Louis University.
President Keefe's daughter, Margaret, is a third year law student at UCLA, and his son, Morgan, recently graduated
from St. Olaf College.