TULANE TALK

April 29, 2002

Good Morning:

As you may recall, I announced in February a reorganization of the senior staff with the creation of a new Senior Vice President (SVP) for External Relations position and the elimination of the existing SVP for Planning and Administration position now occupied by Yvette Jones. This change is effective July 1 when Yvette assumes the new SVP position.

This reorganization also affects the reporting relationship of four key functions, which now report to Yvette but will not after July 1. These functions include: information technology; budgeting and financial analysis; research administration and other related functions; and human resources. After much thought and discussion about each of these critical areas among the senior officers and those most affected by the changes, we have decided the following:

Information Technology, under the leadership of John Lawson, our new VP for Information Technology and CIO, will report directly to me. This reporting relationship was suggested during the search process two years ago and seems appropriate given the strategic importance of this function to the university’s future.

The Budgeting and Financial Analysis department will report to Tony Lorino, SVP for Operations and Chief Financial Officer. This is a logical fit given the scope and nature of Tony’s current responsibilities.

Human Resources, under the leadership of Andy Heck, VP for Human Resources, will report to the President’s office through Chief of Staff Anne Banos. It is unlikely that this will remain a long-term reporting relationship but given the importance of “People” in our strategic plan and the other organizational changes underway, this is a logical interim move for the foreseeable future.

Research Administration and other related functions: The Technology Transfer function will continue to report to Yvette in her new role. Given the purpose and nature of this function, combined with Yvette’s new position and existing functional expertise, this is a logical reporting relationship. This function will be directed by Carla Fishman and will be given increased emphasis in the next few years as we try to significantly enhance our technology transfer and business development efforts. This initiative is consistent with the strategic plan and in keeping with the direction of other major research universities. An expansion of this function could lead to very substantial long-term benefits to the university in the years ahead.

Research Administration and other related functions (e.g. pre- and post-awards, animal and human research protection, vivariums, shared instrumentation) will report to a newly created position of Associate SVP for Research. The person filling this position will report jointly to the SVP for the Health Sciences, and the SVP for Academic Affairs and Provost. The creation of this new academic position has at least two important benefits to the university. First, it will allow us to put more emphasis and importance on the university’s basic and applied research with the expectation of significantly increasing our profile and performance as a major research university. Second, the creation of this university-wide function should allow us to more effectively capture research synergies across the university, consolidate important research activities while eliminating potentially duplicative activities, and have as strong a full-time research advocate at a senior administrative level as we now have at the Graduate School in the presence of Dean Herman. I am very hopeful that the academic team of Paul Whelton, Lester Lefton, Mike Herman and the new research appointee will work very closely together, as well as with the deans and faculty to enhance our capabilities as a research and graduate educational institution.

Paul Whelton and Lester Lefton are in the process of preparing a job description for this new position and discussing how best to fill it from within the university. They will keep you informed of their progress.

The organizational changes outlined above should be finalized by the end of this fiscal year at little or no additional cost to the university. I anticipate these changes will significantly enhance the effectiveness of our external relations and research capabilities in the years ahead.

As always, do not hesitate to contact me if you have any comments or questions regarding the planned changes described above.