By SUSAN JONES
Seven of Pitt’s senior leaders will get four percent raises after the Board of Trustees approved the increases recommended by Chancellor Joan Gabel at a meeting Dec. 19.
Gabel told the board’s Compensation Committee that the review of the work by the University officers during 2022-23 was done by former Chancellor Patrick Gallagher, but “based on my observations over these past six months, I’d like to validate that the excellence that he saw in the performance of the officers of the University is aligned with what I’ve seen since being here.”
Because Gabel did not begin her tenure until after the conclusion of fiscal year 2023, she is not eligible for a salary increase.
Those receiving raises and their new base salaries as of Jan. 1, 2024 are:
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Anantha Shekhar, senior vice vice chancellor for health sciences, $1,084,200
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Jeffer Choudhry, chief investment officer, $758,940
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Geovette Washington, chief legal officer, $464,030
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Rob Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, $459,624
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David DeJong, senior vice chancellor for business & operations, $444,522
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Paul Lawrence, treasurer, $429,027
The four percent raises are in line with what the board set for the non-unionized employees in July. That salary pool included 3 percent for performance-based salary increases and a separate 1 percent for merit, market and equity-based increases.
Gabel said she used the pre-existing guiding principles to set these raises, but “going forward we will also be including the metrics in the Plan for Pitt and making specific evaluations of the officers of the University accordingly.”
In addition, the board approved a one-time payment of $25,000 to Paul Supowitz who took over as interim secretary to the Board of Trustees in September.
Last year, the executives’ raises were set at 4.25 percent, the first salary increases Pitt’s senior officers had received since 2019.
Gabel said they also are finalizing a request for proposals to “bring in a best practice review of compensation. We’ve been using a compensation consultant for the last six years and so this RFP would allow us to refresh the process by which we identify that compensation consultant and ensure that review is at top levels and relies upon best practice.”
In a separate meeting, the full Board of Trustees approved the compensation changes and also heard a report from the Audit committee.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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