By SUSAN JONES
Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and other Pitt officers will receive a 2.25 percent raise starting Jan. 1, after a vote Dec. 17 by the Board of Trustees Compensation Committee.
The raise percentage is in line with those given to staff and faculty earlier this year, which varied from 2 to 3 percent, and are the same as the raises given to Pitt’s leaders last year.
The committee also agreed that the $100,000 that had been deferred from Gallagher’s salary during his first five years at Pitt as an incentive to stay, would no longer be withheld and would become part of his annual salary. Gallagher came to Pitt in 2014 to replace retiring chancellor Mark Nordenberg. In July, he received the $500,000 in deferred payments in a lump sum.
In 2019, Gallagher’s base pay was $536,813, plus the deferred $100,000. In 2020, his base salary will be $669,738. Total compensation, including benefits, will be approximately $828,000.
Eva Tansky Blum, chair of the Board of Trustees and the Compensation Committee, said the board has found Gallagher “to be a remarkable leader and we wanted to keep him here … he has really exceeded our expectations.”
The committee felt there was no longer a need to defer part of Gallagher’s salary because of their confidence in the work he’s done.
“When I talk to Pat and his family, they love being here and are completely committed to the city and the region,” Blum said. She said Gallagher, who is 56, expressed great enthusiasm to continue moving the University forward and indicated that he plans to stay at Pitt until he retires.
The committee worked with the executive compensation consulting first Pay Governance to make sure Gallagher was fairly paid in line with his peers at other public institutions in the Association of American Universities.
His new base pay puts Gallagher in line with salaries reported by the Chronicle of Higher Education for 2018 (the most recent available) for leaders at the University of Maryland and the University of Cincinnati. The salary is well below the top earner on the list, Michael Young of Texas A&M at $1 million. It’s also below the $834,364 base pay earned by Eric Barron at Penn State and the $794,664 paid to WVU’s E. Gordon Gee.
The other University officers who will receive increased base salaries include:
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Arthur Levine, senior vice chancellor for the Health Sciences and dean of the School of Medicine: $911,730
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Greg Schuler, chief investment officer: $511,250
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Ann Cudd, provost and senior vice chancellor: $475,463
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Kathy Humphrey, senior vice chancellor for Engagement and secretary of the Board of Trustees: $427,993
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Geovette Washington, senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer: $427,993.
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Robert Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for Research: $423,929
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Hari Sastry, senior vice chancellor and chief financial officer: $398,775
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Paul Lawrence, treasurer: $395,708
Greg Scott, senior vice chancellor for Business and Operations, was given a substantial market adjustment increase last year and was not included in this year's raises.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 412-648-4294.
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