AURORA | Last week University of Colorado President Bruce Benson asked regents to remove the “interim” title and install Don Elliman as permanent chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver and Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
“I intend to ask the Board of Regents at its meeting (Feb. 20) for a search waiver that will allow me to remove ‘interim’ from Don’s title and name him chancellor of CU Denver/Anschutz Medical Campus,” Benson wrote in an e-mail addressed to faculty and staff at the CU campuses.
The board is slated to meet for two days in Colorado Springs at the University of Colorado campus there and may make Elliman’s appointment official.
Elliman was installed in April 2012 as interim chancellor for the campuses, replacing outgoing interim chancellor Jerry Wartgow. Before becoming chancellor, Elliman had been the executive director at the Charles C. Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology and served as chairman of the board of directors of Children’s Hospital Colorado and as chairman of its foundation board. Elliman has also worked on the boards of the Gates Family Foundation, the Fitzsimons Redevelopment Authority and the Colorado Economic Development Commission.
In April 2012, he said that he wouldn’t have accepted the interim position if it weren’t longer term.
“Every job I’ve ever had is interim. Somebody came before me and somebody came after me,” Elliman said last year. “I wouldn’t have taken it if it had been a relatively short, time-certain opportunity.”
In his statement to staff, Benson said that Elliman’s skills were ideal for the job.
“He has been successful at every stop along the way, and I fully believe he will continue the excellent work he has done in the interim chancellor position over the past year, in addition to his service to the university before he was named interim chancellor,” Benson said.
Benson also noted in his statement Elliman’s relationship with Lilly Marks, vice president for health affairs for CU and executive vice chancellor for the Anschutz Medical Campus, over the past year.
“Together, they have made significant strides in addressing key challenges facing the campus, fostering productive relationships with our hospital partners, and advancing the Anschutz Medical Campus by promoting it as one of the pre-eminent health sciences campuses in the world,” Benson said.
Just one year ago, Elliman said one of his challenges would be putting the campus into the national spotlight.
“It’s a relatively unknown asset,” Elliman said. “Here we have a world-class medical city, really … not just in clinical care, but also in research. We’re one of the top-funded public universities in bioscience research.
“Relatively few people know that. That has an impact on the potential for philanthropy, it has an impact on the potential for increased clinical revenues and for increased research funding.”
The board is expected to make its decision Feb. 20.