Wired Story on Trounson; Sheehy Comments

Wired.com carried a story today by this writer on the appointment of Alan Trounson as the new president of the California stem cell agency. It included a portion of a response that we received from Jeff Sheehy, a member of the CIRM Oversight Committee, in response to questions concerning the presidential search process, whether many members of the ICOC had met face-to-face with Trounson and whether Trounson had been among the candidates from the very beginning.

Here is the complete response from Sheehy:

"Not sure if you mean the very, very beginning--I wasn't on Presidential search sub-com at that point, so I don't know the candidates who were in that mix. Many members of the ICOC have met him face to face, both through this process and also through other occasions, ie, as a fellow scientist at conferences or some other occasion/s in the past. Bob has met him, again, I don't have all of the details---though personally, I believe that his recent trip to the ISSCR conference in Australia played an essential and probably decisive role in this stellar recruitment. As for the process, I had felt that it would not be possible to find a candidate that fulfilled everyone's expectations. After the first interview, I was frankly stunned and delighted to realize that Dr. Trounson would either meet or exceed almost every expectation that we individually had for a candidate for this position--a world renowned stem cell researcher, significant management/administrative experience, significant private sector experience, significant translational experience, a clear well-articulated scientific vision, demonstrated leadership experience, experience with the public, media and political leaders, ability to position CIRM to realize its potential as a global engine for stem cell research and to develop and sustain the relationships with other nations' stem cell efforts in order to avoid wasteful duplication of effort and create (my least favorite word, but I don't have another) synergies between these efforts and CIRM's, and no issues around maintaining a lab. I'm sure I'm missing a couple of other points, but I think you get the gist. In short, we are fortunate to have him lead CIRM and I firmly believe that under his leadership, we will succeed in making a difference in the lives of patients and as Terri Somers put it in the SD Union Trib, it is a "coup" for California."