Maurice J. Gallagher Jr., also known as Maury Gallagher, is a commercial airline entrepreneur and current CEO and Chairman of

Allegiant Travel Company The Allegiant Travel Company is an American travel and hospitality company that is the parent of Allegiant Air. Other subsidiaries include Sunseeker Resorts and Allegiant Nonstop. The Allegiant Travel Company is headquartered in the Las Vegas sub ...

. Prior to Allegiant, he co-founded and invested in

WestAir WestAir Commuter Airlines (IATA:OE, VB/ICAO WCA, SDU), was a U.S.-based regional airline formed when Stol Air Commuter changed its name in 1978 to WestAir Airlines; it was renamed WestAir Commuter Airlines in 1986. One of the founders was Maur ...

and

ValuJet ValuJet Airlines, later known as AirTran Airlines after joining forces with AirTran Airways, was an ultra low-cost U.S. airline, headquartered in unincorporated Clayton County, Georgia, that operated regularly scheduled domestic and interna ...

. He is also the founder of several non-aviation businesses in the telecommunications and adaptive learning fields. He is also the owner of the

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of thr ...

racing team

GMS Racing Petty GMS Motorsports, also known as GMS Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series, is an American professional stock car racing team formed by Richard Petty and Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. and operated by GMS Racing. In the NASCAR Cup Series they field t ...

and co-owner of the

NASCAR Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971, ...

racing team

Legacy Motor Club Legacy Motor Club, formerly known as Petty GMS Motorsports, is an American professional stock car racing team owned by Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. and Jimmie Johnson that competes in the NASCAR Cup Series where they field the Nos. 42 and 43 Chevrol ...

. Gallagher is an alumnus of

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

where he endowed a chair in the name of him and his wife. The university also has a named hall for Gallagher, referred to as the Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall.

Early life and education

Gallagher attended UC Davis where he received his Bachelor of Arts in history in 1971. He went on to

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of Californi ...

where he received his MBA in 1974.

Career

Aviation career

Gallagher was a founder of

, which operated from 1978 through 1992. He served as Vice President-Finance of the parent company of WestAirCommuter Holdings, Inc. from 1979 until 1982. From 1983 until August 1992, he served as an executive and director of WestAir Holding, Inc. until the company was acquired by Mesa Air in May 1992. WestAir functioned as the west-coast commuter/regional airline affiliate of

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.

. Gallagher also was a member of the investment group that founded ValuJet Airlines, Inc. (one of the predecessors to AirTran Airways, Inc.) and served as a board member of ValuJet from its inception in 1993 until 1997. Gallagher is known today as the CEO and Chairman of Allegiant Travel Company, and its major subsidiary, Allegiant Air. Gallagher was the major creditor of the then small,

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

-based scheduled airline in 2000 when it declared bankruptcy. He gained control of the airline as a result of the bankruptcy and later became CEO and Chairman. The airline changed headquarters to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

and eventually changed its business model of flying older large commercial aircraft from small cities around the US to large leisure destinations (initially Las Vegas, later

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

Fort Lauderdale A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

and other cities).

Telecommunications and adaptive learning

Gallagher has been involved other entrepreneurial activities, not all of them aviation-related. For instance, in between his time at ValuJet and Allegiant, he founded and had leadership positions at Mpower Communications, a CLEC that went public in 1998.

Motorsports

Outside of airlines, he is also known for owning

, an American professional

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

team that currently fields entries in the

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

. Originally built in order to further extend his son

Spencer Gallagher Spencer Gallagher (born November 20, 1989) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series, driving the No. 23 Toyota Camry for BK Racing, part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity S ...

's racing career in the

ARCA Menards Series The ARCA Menards Series is an American stock car series, the premier division of the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). It is considered a minor, semi-professional league of stock car racing, used as a feeder series into the three national ...

, it has since become one of the major teams in the Truck Series and Chevrolet's current flagship Truck team. Drivers

Johnny Sauter Jonathan Joseph "Johnny" Sauter (born May 1, 1978) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He last competed part-time in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, driving the No. 47 Toyota Tundra for G2G Racing, the No. 13 Tundra for Th ...

and

Sheldon Creed Sheldon M. Creed (born September 30, 1997) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 2 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Childress Racing. He is a member of Drivers Edge Dev ...

won the Truck Series championship for GMS in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, respectively. After the

2021 NASCAR Cup Series The 2021 NASCAR Cup Series was the 73rd season for NASCAR professional stock car racing in the United States and the 50th season for the modern era Cup Series. The season started at Daytona International Speedway with the Busch Clash, wher ...

season,

Richard Petty Motorsports Richard Petty Motorsports (RPM) was an American professional stock car racing team that competed in the NASCAR Cup Series. The team was founded as a result of the merger between Gillett Evernham Motorsports (GEM) and Petty Enterprises, with ...

majority owner and Medallion Financial CEO

Andrew Murstein Andrew Mead Murstein (born June 29, 1964) is founder, president, board member and, with his family, the largest shareholder of Medallion Financial Corp., an investment company publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol MFIN.M ...

sold his stake of the team to Gallagher and the team was renamed

Petty GMS Motorsports Petty GMS Motorsports, also known as GMS Racing in the Craftsman Truck Series, is an American professional stock car racing team formed by Richard Petty and Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. and operated by GMS Racing. In the NASCAR Cup Series they fiel ...

. The team name was changed to

in 2023 after

and

IndyCar Series The IndyCar Series, currently known as the NTT IndyCar Series under sponsorship, is the highest class of regional North American open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars in the United States, which has been conducted under the auspices of ...

driver

Jimmie Johnson Jimmie Kenneth Johnson (born September 17, 1975) is an American professional auto racing driver. A seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion, he competes part-time in the series driving for Petty GMS Motorsports. Johnson's seven Cup championships, ...

purchased an ownership stake. However, the GMS Racing team did not merge into Petty's team, and GMS continued to field entries in the Truck Series and the

in 2022. In January 2023, the team announced it would not be fielding cars in the 2023

Season in order to better focus on their entries in the

Philanthropy

Gallagher has made two prominent donations to the

UC Davis Graduate School of Management The UC Davis Graduate School of Management (GSM) is a graduate business school at the University of California, Davis. Established in 1981, its degree programs include MBA, MPAc and MSBA. The GSM offers Master of Business Administration (MBA) de ...

. The first was for an endowed chair in the name of him and his wife, the second was a $10 million donation which prompted the school to name its new building the Maurice J. Gallagher Jr. Hall. In 2011, Gallagher gave the commencement address for the UC Davis business school.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Maurice J. Jr. Living people American airline chief executives University of California, Davis alumni Year of birth missing (living people) NASCAR team owners