SAN FRANCISCO—San Francisco Mayor Edwin Lee issued a statement on Tuesday, December 17 congratulating UCSF Chancellor Desmond-Hellman who is stepping down effective March 31, 2014 to become the Chief Executive Officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, according to a press release from the Mayor’s Office website.
“I extend my sincerest congratulations to Chancellor Susan Desmond-Hellmann on her new role at the helm of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I thank her for her leadership and service to the residents of our City as she blazed a trail in health care, innovation and education here and around the world.
Chancellor Desmond-Hellmann was the first woman Chancellor of UCSF, and she applied her extensive private sector experience to ensure UCSF led the way in science, medicine and research at the University, UCSF Medical Center and Benioff Children’s Hospital. She partnered with our City to make Mission Bay the center of cutting edge biotechnology and life science discoveries, and she helped make San Francisco the Innovation Capital of the World. I thank Chancellor Desmond-Hellmann for her work on my Education Leadership Council, advising me on education issues, developing a plan to save City College and preparing our youth for the jobs of the 21st Century economy.
Chancellor Desmond-Hellmann will be greatly missed here in San Francisco, but I can think of no better place for the Chancellor to extend her impact on the world than at the Gates Foundation.”
By LaDale Anderson
