Careers

UC San Francisco Appoints New Head of IT

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 03/29/10

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) has a new vice chancellor for IT. Elazar Harel will also hold the title of CIO. The new position, which comes with a base salary of $310,800, replaces the previously shared arrangement in which two associate vice chancellors jointly filled the academic and administrative CIO roles.

In the new position, Harel will oversee both the academic and administrative IT activities for the university, which focuses solely on the health sciences. The institution has 4,000 students, 2,200 faculty, and 22,000 staff spread across a dozen different sites located in San Francisco and Mission Bay.

The scope of these responsibilities is unique within the UC system, according to Executive Vice Chancellor Jeffrey Bluestone, who will oversee the new position alongside Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration John Plotts. "The next decade at UCSF will be marked by tremendous changes in understanding and treating human diseases, brought on by the genomic revolution and biomedical advances, and state-of-the-art IT systems will be a core component of most of those changes," Bluestone said. "In that context, Elazar's unusual combination of technical expertise and vision in IT management, as well as business and political acumen, will be an invaluable resource."

"This role will be of critical importance as UCSF moves forward as a more efficient and streamlined organization," Plotts added. "With Elazar's appointment, this newly configured role will be occupied by a stellar individual with the experience needed to lead those efficiencies in the IT realm."

Harel joins UCSF from UC San Diego, where he was responsible for campus-wide information technology services as the assistant vice chancellor for computing and telecommunications.

"UCSF now has the opportunity to develop a state-of-the-art IT environment that will serve the needs of its students and world-class researchers while, simultaneously, becoming a national example of staff efficiency," Harel said. "This is a wonderful opportunity to join the new UCSF leadership team and contribute to this remarkable institution."

Harel begins his new role on April 12, 2010.