James V. Koch became the sixth president of Old Dominion University on July 1, 1990. Prior to coming to Old Dominion University, he was President of the University of Montana. A study funded by the Exxon Foundation has named Dr. Koch as one of the 100 most effective college presidents in the United States.

Old Dominion University enrolls 18,500 students, 6,500 of whom are graduate students. It offers doctoral degrees in twenty disciplines and has special strengths in the sciences and engineering. The University's oceanography program recently was ranked in the top five in the United States, and the University is the largest research contractor in Virginia with NASA. Old Dominion utilizes three percent of all of the supercomputer time in the United States.

Dr. Koch earned a bachelor of arts degree at Illinois State University in 1964 and a Ph.D. in economics at Northwestern University in 1968. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from Toyo University in Tokyo, Japan, Yeungnam University in Taegu, Korea, and Kyushu Institute of Technology, Kitakyushu, Japan. Dr. Koch was employed as a research economist at the Harris Bank in Chicago and has held faculty positions at Illinois State University, California State University of Los Angeles, the University of Grenoble (France), Brown University, and the University of Hawaii. During his service as a faculty member at Illinois State University, he as named "Teacher of the Year." From 1978 through 1980, he was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rhode Island College. He served as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Ball State University between 1980 and 1986, before becoming President of the University of Montana.

Dr. Koch has published seven books and over sixty articles in the field of economics. His book, Industrial Organization and Prices, was one of the leading texts in the discipline. He is a co-author of the book, Presidential Leadership, published by the American Council on Education. Dr. Koch has served as a consultant and expert witness for over thirty legal firms and his scholarship and court testimony formed the economic basis for the decision rendered by the United States Supreme Court in Regents v. NCAA (1984), the ground breaking case relating to the televising of collegiate football games. Dr. Koch continues to teach and publish articles in the area of economics. He has been a consultant for a wide variety of firms, including the World Bank, State Farm Insurance Companies, Brown Shoe Company, and the National Football League Players Association.

One of Dr. Koch's most enduring interests and objectives has been utilizing technology to bring higher education to individuals who are place bound. The University's cost-efficient TELETECHNET is the largest interactive, televised distance learning system in the United States and involves a unique partnership with the Virginia Community College System. 6,000 students annually now complete Old Dominion University courses via TELETECHNET by means of interactive television, prolific use of Internet, and sophisticated simulations that are presented live on more than 30 community college campuses and 20 additional business and military sites.

Dr. Koch was born in Springfield, Illinois in 1942. He married Donna L. Koch in 1967, and they have two children - Beth, a graduate student at Georgetown University and Mark, a senior at James Madison University.