Aggregated News
A divided oversight committee of California’s $3 billion stem cell research institute selected Los Angeles investment banker and attorney Jonathan Thomas to be its new chairman in a late-night vote Wednesday in San Diego.
Thomas received 14 votes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine panel to edge out Los Angeles cardiologist and business executive Frank Litvack, who got 11 votes.
The two men had been nominated by the state’s top elected officials.
Thomas, who will earn $400,000 a year and serve a six-year term, replaces Robert Klein, who made $150,000 a year and had been the institute’s guide in the six years since the agency started handing out $3 billion in public funding for stem cell research.
The San Francisco-based institute, which takes its public meetings on the road several times a year, held Wednesday’s session at the Sheraton San Diego hotel on Harbor Island.
The new chairman faces a number of challenges.
Agency leaders have suggested seeking a new round of public funding from voters, but that could be difficult in a tight economy.
The state’s fiscal crisis...
Thomas received 14 votes from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine panel to edge out Los Angeles cardiologist and business executive Frank Litvack, who got 11 votes.
The two men had been nominated by the state’s top elected officials.
Thomas, who will earn $400,000 a year and serve a six-year term, replaces Robert Klein, who made $150,000 a year and had been the institute’s guide in the six years since the agency started handing out $3 billion in public funding for stem cell research.
The San Francisco-based institute, which takes its public meetings on the road several times a year, held Wednesday’s session at the Sheraton San Diego hotel on Harbor Island.
The new chairman faces a number of challenges.
Agency leaders have suggested seeking a new round of public funding from voters, but that could be difficult in a tight economy.
The state’s fiscal crisis...