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Jim Hoolihan

Jim Hoolihan was appointed president of Blandin Foundation April 22, 2004, and came on-board fulltime in June.

Hoolihan, 52, is a native of Grand Rapids, businessman and civic leader.

He was Grand Rapids three-term mayor from 1990 through 1995, Foundation board member from 1992 through 2003 and Foundation chair from 1996 through 1999. In 2002 he was named Citizen of the Year by the Grand Rapids Herald Review.

From 1981 until joining the Foundation, he was president of Industrial Lubricants Company and Can-Jer, a Grand Rapids based company providing industrial supplies and services to the logging, railroad, taconite and coal-mining industries. The Hoolihan family has owned the business for more than 60 years.

He has served on several civic boards and commissions including the Governor’s Task Force on Mining and Minerals; the Taconite Production Tax Committee; United Way of Grand Rapids as campaign chair; Itasca County Family YMCA, as officer and board member; the Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital Foundation board; and chair of Itasca Development Corp/Jobs 2020.

Hoolihan holds a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law (1979), masters of business degree from the University of Minnesota (1978) and his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame (1975). He graduated from Grand Rapids High School in 1971. In addition, he completed the Harvard Business School Program on Nonprofit Management in 1995.

He is a trustee of Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church and a trustee of the College of Saint Scholastica. He is married to Kathy Walter Hoolihan and is the father of three children.