Salk loses a second top executive
For the second time in a week, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla has announced that one of its top executives is leaving, placing pressure on the famed science center to pull together a new management team.
Marsha A. Chandler is stepping down as executive vice president and chief operating officer on Aug. 31st, after serving at the Salk since 2007. Her departure was announced on Monday by 71-year-old President William Brody, who said last week that he will retire at the end of the year.
Chandler, 70, helped Brody to roughly triple the Institute’s endowment to $370 million and to help recruit a greater mix of scientists at the Salk, whose basic research has led to drugs to treat cancer, and improved treatments in diabetes, inflammation and obesity.
But Brody released a statement Monday afternoon that suggests that Chandler’s exit was not voluntary. The statement says: “In order to provide the future Salk President with the greatest flexibility to determine the Institute’s ideal executive management structure going forward, the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees and the Institute’s leadership have decided to restructure the executive team. Therefore, with respect to this decision, Marsha Chandler will be leaving her position as Chief Operating Officer/Executive Vice President at the end of August.”
Brody, Chandler, and Irwin Jacobs, chair of the institute’s board of trustees, did not respond to a request for comment.
Broday also said in the statement, “ Marsha has made numerous contributions to the Institute, including her leadership during Salk’s first successful fundraising campaign, her role in recruiting of top-notch faculty, and her efforts to expand the Institute’s scientific core facilities, just to name a few.
“These accomplishments and others have positioned the Institute better than ever to pursue the remarkable research and life-changing discoveries for which it is known.”
Chandler received praise from David Brenner, dean of the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who said, “Marsha was remarkably helpful. She knows both the UC and private systems. We were able to establish closer ties with Salk.”
Chandler earned a bachelor of arts degree at College of the City of New York in 1965, and a doctorate at the University of North Carolina in 1972. She is a widely published expert on public policy and organizational behavior. She was a professor of political science from 1986 to 1997, when she took executive position at UC San Diego. She accepted her current position at the Salk in 2007.
