Over winter break, UB concluded three senior leadership searches, two of which appointed new vice presidents.
President Satish K. Tripathi named Laura E. Hubbard vice president for finance and administration, and Nancy L. Wells vice president for development and alumni relations. Dr. Timothy F. Murphy was named director of UB's Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC).
President Tripathi announced the appointments last week. Hubbard's appointment is effective Feb. 27; Wells' on March 12.
Hubbard and Wells bring over 20 and 30 years of experience, respectively, to their new positions. Murphy has been at UB for 31 years as a professor, and most recently was senior associate dean for clinical and translational research.
Hubbard was the associate vice president for budget and finance at the University of Oregon, and worked in the areas of budget and strategic planning and organizational restructuring. Her accomplishments at Oregon include implementing a strategic plan for financial and business services, and comprehensively reorganizing business functions and processes to better support the university's mission, according to a UB Reporter news release.
As vice president for finance and administration at UB – a newly formulated position at the university – Hubbard will oversee strategic financial planning and analysis of resource use and development, and will see oversee UB business services, internal audit, human resources, employee relations, and facilities units.
"Laura Hubbard is a tremendously valuable addition to our strong leadership team," Tripathi said in the press release. "Not only is she among the very best administrators in the finance area, but she also is thoroughly grounded in the higher education realm and is highly attuned to the particular priorities and challenges facing a research-intensive university like UB."
Wells will lead the university's fundraising efforts and its engagement with the more than 218,000 UB alumni worldwide. Her appointment, announced Jan. 5, followed a national search and is effective March 12.
Wells' 30 years of experience in fundraising and alumni relations includes tenures at Stanford University and McGill University. She recently served as vice president of development at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
"Nancy Wells brings an extraordinary mix of talents and expertise to this key role," Tripathi said. "She has a keen understanding of the 21st-century university's needs in today's economic climate, but she also brings a wide range of fundraising expertise from outside this arena. And she has a clear vision for ensuring that UB has the resources to propel us forward by building the investments that are critical to our long-range success – investments in our students, our faculty, our academic enterprise and, ultimately, in the future of UB as a premier public research university."
At UB, Wells will work closely with Tripathi and other university leaders and volunteers to guide the work of philanthropy.
"I am very excited to serve in this leadership role at UB, and I am looking forward to helping the university achieve its ambitious vision," Wells said in the news release. "With its reputation for outstanding academics and research, and its strong support from alumni and community members, UB clearly is positioned to achieve great things."
Murphy has already begun his position as director of UB's CTRC, although the center will not be open until May 2012.
As senior associate dean, Murphy organized and brought together different researchers from different schools and departments to figure out ways to grow clinical and translational research in Buffalo.
"The CTRC building that I'll be director of is kind of going to be like the hub of clinical and translational research," Murphy said. "So we'll have programs there that will include all the health sciences schools, like pharmacy, nursing, public health, dental medicine, and medicine. So, in a way, the director of the building has started before the building opened."
Murphy hopes to bring more faculty to Buffalo, particularly in the school of medicine. He says the anonymous $40 million donation UB received will help to recruit new faculty who will end up in the CTRC building, but the building itself is being funded solely by state money.
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