Members of the faculty of medicine and the Sauder School of Business ranked among the highest-paid UBC employees last year.
As a public institution, UBC is bound by the Financial Information Act to release financial statements annually, including the salaries of any employees making over $75,000.
The most recent statement, ending on March 31 2021, includes the salaries of over 7,000 employees. This article will break down the top paid employees as well as the deans’ and president’s executive management team’s salaries.
Top ten salaries
The top ten salaries hold few surprises. At the top with $921,413 is the President and CEO of UBC’s Investment Management Trust (IMANT) Dawn Jia. IMANT manages the investment of UBC’s $2.5 billion endowment fund, as well as the staff pension plan.
Following Jia is Dean of Medicine Dermot Kelleher, then UBC President Santa Ono.
Two more faculty of medicine members appear in the top ten — Associate Dean Francois Benard and head of the department of psychiatry Lakshmi Yatham. Yatham has been a professor at UBC since 2003 and is also the director of UBC’s Institute of Mental Health.
Four Sauder faculty members appear on the list: Dean Robert Helsley, Associate Deans Darren Dahl and Mahesh Nagarajan and Professor Kai Li. Dahl has been a professor at UBC for 20 years, and an associate dean for 10.
Life Sciences Institute Directer Josef Penninger is the last in the top ten.
Dean’s salaries
Among UBC Vancouver’s deans, the average salary is $382,000.
Kelleher and Helsley top this list as well. Helsley makes $200,000 more than the next highest — former dean of education Blye Frank. All three have served longer than a single five-year term.
The lowest-paid dean is graduate and doctoral studies dean Susan Porter, making $286,000.
President’s executive management team
In the president’s executive management team, made up of Ono’s vice-presidents overseeing UBC’s operations, the average salary is just under $350,000.
After Kelleher, who is also vice-president health, the top paid is Provost and Vice-President Academic Andrew Szeri, making just over $400,000. Szeri leads academic planning and budgeting for the university.
Szeri makes over $100,000 more than his UBC Okanagan counterpart Ananya Mukherjee Reed, matching a broader trend noted seven years ago between UBC Vancouver and Okanagan salaries.