The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has selected Jonathan Thomas as the state stem cell agency's next chairman.
Thomas, who will receive a compensation package of $400,000 for working 80 percent of a full-time schedule, was elected to a six-year term by a 14-11 vote of the board.
The former Wall Street investment banker co-founded investment and private equity firm Saybrook Capital, which has done work securing funds for embryonic stem cell-based clinical trials. He holds a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis on medicine and a law degree from Yale University and has taught courses in the legal implications of genetic engineering and historical impacts of disease, according to a biography provided by CIRM.
State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who nominated Thomas for the post, said his "experience as a public finance investment banker, attorney, board member of various governmental agencies, and board member of the Crippled Children's Society of Southern California as well as his lifelong background, education and interest in biology and medical sciences, makes him exceptionally well-suited" for the job.
Thomas replaces outgoing CIRM Board Chairman Robert Klein, the Palo Alto developer who authored and financed Proposition 71. The successful 2004 ballot initiative authorized $3 billion in bonds to create and fund the agency.








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