UBC’s most recent financial report reveals that the university’s top earners receive salaries well above $500,000 per year.
The latest financial statement outlines UBC’s financial position up to March 31, 2024, with a notable $1.9 billion allocated to employee compensation. This marks an increase from the $1.7 billion reported in the previous fiscal year.
In accordance with the Financial Information Act UBC is legally required to release annual financial statements, including all specific salaries above $75,000.
Below, we broke down some of the top earners, how much deans are making and the salaries of the president and his vice-presidents.
This years top 10 earners are the same as last year. In line with previous years, Dawn Jia, the CEO of UBC Investment Management (IMANT), is the highest paid UBC employee with a salary of $1,083,574 — a $90,000 increase compared to her salary the previous year. Appointed in 2019, Jia is responsible for the overall investment activities and monitoring of the portfolios under IMANT.
Following Jia is Dr. Dermot Kelleher, dean of the Faculty of Medicine and vice-president of health, earning $771,699. This year, his salary increased by approximately $110,000.
Notably, Dr. Zu-Hua Gao, professor and head of UBC’s pathology and laboratory medicine department jumped from the 10th to 3rd spot this year with a salary increase of approximately $177,000.
The remaining 7 earners are all within the medicine and business faculties. Collectively, this list of top earners are among the highest paid public servants in BC.
Currently, UBC has 12 deans, 4 of whom are pro term, which means they are temporary deans. The median salary for a dean at UBC is $357,345, which is similar to last year’s median of $353,208. The two highest paid deans for the last three years have both been from medicine and business, respectively.
The bottom three in the list are all pro term. Dr. Larry Lynd, previous pro term pharmaceutical sciences dean, was replaced in the summer by Dr. Lalitha Raman-Wilms.
In the president’s executive management team, made up of UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon’s nine vice-presidents overseeing UBC’s operations, the median salary is $355,440.
The report shows that President Bacon made $295,815. Previous President Santo Ono made $629,893 during the 2021/22 fiscal year. However, Bacon was not appointed until November 2023, so his salary is lower than what is stipulated in his contract which sets him to earn $515,000 annually.
Vice-President External Relations Dr. Melanie Stewart replaced Robin Ciceri this summer as Ciceri transitioned to retirement.
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