CCST Welcomes New Board and Council Chairs

The California Council on Science and Technology (CCST) is beginning 2014 with new leadership in both the Board and Council. Effective on January 1, Charles F. Kennel, distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, became CCST Board Chair, and Corey Goodman, managing partner and co-founder of venBio, became Council Chair.

“CCST is the oldest and best state-based scientific organization in the country,” said Kennel. “Over the coming years, I look forward to expanding CCST’s capacity to take on policy studies in an ever-larger scale in the State.”

Kennel’s distinguished career has included service as Director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Vice Chancellor of Marine Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, from 1998 to 2006, and is the former director of the UCSD Environment and Sustainability Initiative, a program which embraces teaching, research, campus operations, and public outreach. Previously he has also served as Associate Administrator at NASA and Director of Mission to Planet Earth, the world’s largest Earth science program. Kennel has been involved with CCST for many years, serving as Council chair from 2008-2010 and as a member of the Board.

He succeeds longtime Chair Karl Pister, who is stepping down after more than two decades at the helm of CCST’s Board.

“It has been my privilege and great pleasure to have served as Chairman of the CCST Board of Directors,” said Pister. “During my tenure the Council has evolved from a virtually unknown entity in Sacramento to a position today where elected officials and state agencies routinely seek advice on science and technology related policy issues, thanks to the leadership of Executive Director Susan Hackwood and the generous support and commitment of hundreds of volunteer scientists and engineers. I have every confidence that the Council will continue on this course under Charlie Kennel’s leadership.”

Corey Goodman, the new Council chair, is a scientist, educator, and biotech entrepreneur. He is managing partner of venBio, a strategic life sciences venture capital firm, chair of the board of five biotechnology companies, and former member of Pfizer’s executive leadership team. An elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, Goodman was a professor at Stanford and U.C. Berkeley for twenty five years, a current faculty member at U.C. San Francisco, and formerly chaired the National Academy’s Board on Life Sciences. Current Council Vice Chair Peter Cowhey, dean of the School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at University of California, San Diego, will remain in office and continue to serve with Goodman.

“I could not be more pleased with the choice of Corey Goodman as my successor,” said outgoing Council Chair Miriam John, vice president emeritus of the California Division of Sandia National Laboratories. “He will bring a high level of energy and engagement to the position at a time when it is needed to secure CCST’s future.”

CCST is a nonpartisan, impartial, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) corporation established via Assembly Concurrent Resolution (ACR 162) in 1988 by a unanimous vote of the California Legislature. It is designed to offer expert advice to the state government and to recommend solutions to science and technology-related policy issues. CCST is governed by a Board of Directors composed of representatives from its sponsoring academic institutions, from the corporate and business community, as well as from the philanthropic community.