New Chair Elected for Buck Trustees

James M. Edgar, a life-long management consultant and community leader has been elected chair of the Board of Trustees of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging effective Jan. 1. He will preside over his first regular board meeting on March 9.

Former Bank of America CEO Richard Rosenberg was elected vice chair at the December board meeting.

Edgar, who joined the board in 2007, has served as vice chair and head of the board’s Development Committee, which provides guidance on the institute’s philanthropic and outreach efforts. He becomes board chair at a crucial time in the history of the Buck as the Institute prepares to open its new regenerative research building in April 2012.

“The Institute is poised to reach new heights and it will be a privilege to work with our board, staff and scientists to ensure that the Buck succeeds in its mission to extend the healthy years of life,” Edgar said. “We will be adding outstanding new investigators to our faculty and launching programs that have global impact in the coming year.  I look forward to supporting these outstanding efforts.”

Edgar has been a management consultant for his entire professional life, specializing in competitive brand positioning, marketing strategy and organizational development. He is a founding member of Edgar, Dunn & Company, an international consulting firm with clients in 45 countries and offices in Atlanta, Frankfurt, London, San Francisco, Singapore and Sydney.

Edgar has taken a leading role in many San Francisco and Marin County organizations. He has served as Chair of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the Library Foundation of San Francisco and the Rosenberg Foundation. He was an Executive Committee Member of the San Francisco Mayor’s Fiscal Advisory Committee and served on the San Francisco Committee on Jobs.  Edgar is also a current member of the Buck Advisory Council, a prestigious group of men and women from the United States and around the world dedicated to helping advance the Buck Institute’s scientific and educational mission. He and his wife Judy live in Kentfield.

“We are fortunate to have Jim Edgar as chair,” said Brian K. Kennedy, Ph.D, Buck Institute President and CEO.  “His depth of knowledge of Institute activities, his contacts in the community and his commitment to our success will be invaluable as we build on the Institute’s reputation as the nation’s preeminent research facility on aging.”

About the Buck Institute for Research on Aging:
The Buck Institute is the first freestanding institute in the United States that is devoted solely to basic research on aging and age-associated disease. The Institute is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to extending the healthspan, the healthy years of each individual’s life. Buck Institute scientists work in an innovative, interdisciplinary setting to understand the mechanisms of aging and to discover new ways of detecting, preventing and treating conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, cancer, diabetes, macular degeneration, glaucoma, cardiovascular disease and stroke.  Collaborative research at the Institute is supported by new developments in genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics technology. For more information: www.thebuck.org.