CGS-authored
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17 - The real estate developer who helped write and finance a ballot initiative to create a California stem cell institute was elected on Friday to a six-year term as chairman of the committee that oversees it.
The financier, Robert N. Klein, a Palo Alto housing developer with strong ties to the Democratic Party, was unanimously approved here at the first meeting of the state-appointed committee that will dictate policy and oversee the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the $3 billion research agency created on Nov. 2 when the state's voters approved the initiative, Proposition 71.
Mr. Klein, 59, of Portola Valley, will take the helm of the new 29-member board, known as the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, and guide the agency in distributing $300 million a year over a decade to finance embryonic stem cell research projects that are currently ineligible for federal grants.
The vote was briefly delayed by critics, who raised a series of concerns, asking why there was only one nominee for the job and whether Mr. Klein, a Stanford University Law School...
The financier, Robert N. Klein, a Palo Alto housing developer with strong ties to the Democratic Party, was unanimously approved here at the first meeting of the state-appointed committee that will dictate policy and oversee the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the $3 billion research agency created on Nov. 2 when the state's voters approved the initiative, Proposition 71.
Mr. Klein, 59, of Portola Valley, will take the helm of the new 29-member board, known as the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee, and guide the agency in distributing $300 million a year over a decade to finance embryonic stem cell research projects that are currently ineligible for federal grants.
The vote was briefly delayed by critics, who raised a series of concerns, asking why there was only one nominee for the job and whether Mr. Klein, a Stanford University Law School...