CIRM Leadership

Alan Trounson, President

Alan Trounson, Ph.D., is President of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in San Francisco, California. Prior to joining CIRM in January 2008, Trounson was Professor of Stem Cell Sciences and Director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories at Monash University, where he retains the title of Emeritus Professor. Dr. Trounson founded the National Biotechnology Centre of Excellence – ‘Australian Stem Cell Centre’.

Trounson held various positions at Monash University beginning in 1977 and was appointed Director of the Centre for Early Human Development in 1985. He was awarded a Personal Chair in Obstetrics and Gynaecology/Paediatrics in 1991, and in 2003 was awarded a Personal Chair as Professor of Stem Cell Sciences. A Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and an Honorary Fellow of the Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Trounson was awarded an honorary doctorate by the faculty of medicine at the University of Brussels.

He has been a pioneer of human in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and associated reproductive technologies; the diagnosis of inherited genetic disease in pre-implantation embryos; the discovery and production of human embryonic stem cells and of their ability to be directed into neurones, prostate tissue and respiratory tissue.

Robert Klein, Chairman, Independent Citizens’ Oversight Committee

Bob Klein is president of Klein Financial Corporation, a real estate investment banking consulting company focused on affordable housing finance and development.

Bob served as author of Proposition 71 and as Chairman of the California Proposition 71 committee, the champion sponsor of the “California Stem Cell Research and Cures” ballot initiative, passed in November of 2004 by 59% of the California voters. Time Magazine honored Bob as one of the world’s “100 Most Influential People of the Year” for 2005. Soon after, Scientific American named Bob one of “The Scientific American 50” as a leader shaping the future of science.

Bob has a Bachelor of Arts in History with Honors from Stanford University and a Juris Doctorate from Stanford Law School. Additional education includes: Executive Summer Finance Program at Stanford University Business School and an internship with the United Nations Economic and Social Council in Switzerland on Economic Development Policy. Bob is a member of both the California Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

John Robson, Vice President for Operations

John A. Robson, PhD, is Vice President for Operations of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine. Before coming to CIRM in September of 2008, Dr. Robson served as the first Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine of Montreal’s McGill University. While in the Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Robson was responsible for activities related to the careers of faculty members including recruitment, tenure, promotion and retirement. In addition, he led the searches and reviews of the chairs of departments and programs, and represented the Faculty on several university committees dealing with major recruitments and policy matters.

Prior to joining McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Robson was the Associate Director for Scientific Affairs at the university’s Montreal Neurological Institute for 10 years. In addition to hiring faculty and renovating research facilities, Dr. Robson helped elevate the Institute’s success rate in winning grants from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to twice the national average.

Dr. Robson earned a degree in Biology from Trinity College, which he followed with a PhD in Anatomy from Duke University and postdoctoral positions at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Chicago. He then took a position as a faculty member and research scientist at the State University of New York (Upstate Medical University, Syracuse), where he led an NIH-funded neuroscience research lab, directed the Neuroscience Graduate Program and chaired the committee that distributed internal research funds.