From the Ivy League to Rutgers: Brian Strom prepares to become health science chancellor

By Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

NEW BRUNSWICK — Just reading Brian Strom’s current job description is exhausting.

He is a University of Pennsylvania professor in four subject areas: public health and preventive medicine, biostatistics and epidemiology, medicine, and pharmacology. He also serves as an executive vice dean at the university’s medical school, where his duties include recruiting top faculty members.

In addition, he is spearheading a high-profile project to improve care at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

And, oh yeah, in his free time he works at his medical practice, where he treats patients as a primary care general internist.

Come December, Strom will give up all his posts for one big job: the first chancellor of biomedical and health sciences at Rutgers University.

Strom will be the head of the newly merged health science parts of Rutgers and the former University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He will be in charge of 14 schools and institutes, including two medical schools.

After a long career at Penn, the 63-year-old doctor said he could not resist the challenge of creating something new at Rutgers.

“I’m really excited about this,” Strom said. “This is an institution with enormous potential, and what I like to do is build.”

Rutgers is paying dearly for Strom, who is widely regarded as one of the top names in his field. Strom will earn a base salary of $675,000 a year, according to his hiring agreement. That is $25,000 more a year than his new boss, Rutgers President Robert Barchi.

Strom also will be eligible for up to $101,250 in performance bonuses each year and could get another $200,000 deferred compensation bonus as a reward for staying in the job five years.

In total, Strom could earn more than $4 million in five years.

Rutgers also will give Strom a $12,000-a-year housing allowance, along with a car and driver and a free two-bedroom apartment while he looks for a house.

Though his lucrative deal has raised eyebrows at the public university, Strom said the money has little to do with why he took the Rutgers job.

“It was a cut in income for me,” Strom said. He is earning $688,000, in addition to $259,000 in possible bonuses, each year in his current job.

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