Dysfunction, Bifurcated Management and $12 Billion: A Call for Reevalution of CIRM

Longtime member of CIRM financial oversight panel resigns, citing 'surpassed tolerance limits'

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Editor’s note: For a look at the performance risks that CIRM has self-identified, see this item from Sunday.

A nearly 20-year veteran of the only state body charged with financial oversight of California’s $12 billion stem cell and gene therapy agency has resigned, calling for a fundamental reexamination of the program's structure and governance. 

”I don’t think this train runs on the track any longer. I really don't….They got to figure out how to give us a new engine,” said Jim Lott, a member of the Citizens Financial Accountability Oversight Committee (CFAOC), in an interview. 

Lott has served longer on the CFAOC than any individual has worked at CIRM or served as its chair, president or board member. 

“I support the purpose and goals of the voter-approved initiatives that established and reauthorized the agency and its efforts. However, my growing disenchantment with its governance, organization and leadership structures has surpassed tolerance limits,” Lott said in his brief, March 20 resignation letter. 

Lott is an organizational psychologist who has held senior positions in the California hospital industry for decades. He also spent 11 years as a health policy expert with the California Legislature. In a telephone interview yesterday with the California Stem Cell Report, Lott shared his perspective on the state’s research funding program.