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Board of Overseers chair David Lee calls Keck strategic plan “good business.”

In a meeting with the Keck School Executive Council, Board of Overseers chair David Lee provided his point of view to a discussion of the school’s strategic plan.

He commented on the strategy of recruiting new, established scientists and clinicians to the school, an effort that’s been underway for a number of years.

That plan, he says, is structurally sound, in that it is self-reinforcing. "If you spend money on recruits and they are up to standards or industry averages, these recruits will support themselves long term. Their results will be sufficient to pay back the initial investment," Lee said. "From a business point of view, it’s good business."

He noted also that the plan for the campus, including new buildings and plans for a large BioMedical park to be built adjacent to the Health Sciences Campus, adds up to a major business enterprise "With $1 billion to raise and several hundred thousand square feet of research space it’s comparable to a big business and is going to require a lot of management resources."

"The plan is nothing more than a road map that you refer to along the way," Lee added. "Dean Ryan’s job is to make sure we are going in the right direction."

One of the school’s advantages Lee emphasized was the land surrounding the Health Sciences Campus. "Now we have to determine how do we dress it up to make it look first-class?" posed Lee. "How do we produce the new buildings to sustain the plan?"

Lee said the next phase is to look at land contiguous to the campus to determine how to develop a biomedical park. He said that the Los Angeles BioMedical Park will attract a variety of enterprises—some will be startups, while others will be components of major companies.
In describing the activities of the BioMedical Park Lee said: "I’ve never seen members of the Board of Overseers work so hard for something they are volunteering their time on. If we can make it happen it will be an improvement for not only USC and the Keck School of Medicine, but for all of Los Angeles."

"Just imagine a self-contained, well landscaped campus," added Lee. "The Overseers and the University Trustees are excited by the possibilities of the BioMedical Park."

Lee credited Eli Broad, a member of the Board of Overseers, for his leadership and Ron Kaufman, senior associate dean for administration, with helping to navigate local politics and advancing the BioMedical Park’s development.

"Those of use who serve on the Board of Overseers have tremendous enthusiasm and pride in the school," Lee told the group in conclusion.

Following a question and answer session with the EC members in attendance, Ryan thanked Lee for his dedication to and support of the school.

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