BU Names Biolab Leader
By Elizabeth Cooney (From The Boston Globe), July 31, 2009
A healthcare executive with a background in Boston has been named to manage operations at a high-security research laboratory in the city’s South End, Boston University announced today.
John D. Nash became chief operating officer of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories on July 20. He comes from the Ireland Cancer Center at University Hospitals in Cleveland, where he was senior vice president and general manager. Before that he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
Earlier in his career Nash was chief of hospital operations at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. He earned a bachelors’ degree at Boston College and master’s in healthcare administration from Duke University.
The BU biolab, housed in a $198 million building on Albany Street, is vacant while additional safety reviews are completed, which could take until late next year. Residents in the South End and Roxbury have sued to block its opening, contending that the deadly viruses and bacteria studied there would pose too great a hazard to the densely populated neighborhood near the lab.