ASCO Welcomes Dr. Allen S. Lichter as Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer
After conducting an extensive search for an Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), ASCO is pleased to welcome Allen S. Lichter, MD, a highly accomplished and well respected leader in the oncology community. As a former ASCO President (1998-1999), Dr. Lichter has a comprehensive understanding of the Society’s mission, history, structure, and operation. The Society’s current President, Gabriel N. Hortobagyi, MD, FACP, is very enthusiastic about Dr. Lichter joining ASCO later this month.
“The ASCO Board of Directors and executive leadership, the Search Committee, and I are ready for Dr. Lichter to serve the Society in this capacity and believe he will successfully lead ASCO into a new era,” says Dr. Hortobagyi.
Dr. Lichter, a former Chair of The ASCO Foundation Board of Directors (1999- 2002), is a current Board member and also serves as Chair of the ASCO Ethics Committee. He has previously served as Chair of the Public Issues Committee and the Special Awards Selection Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Fellows Task Force. Additionally, he has completed multiple terms on the Scientific Program Committee and has also served on the Nominating Committee and the Audit and Finance Committee. He brings with him not only extensive knowledge of ASCO, but also keen scientific knowledge, clinical research and hands-on patient care experience, personal dedication to education, effective organizational leadership, and strong performance in executing the operations of a nonprofit organization.
“I am very honored to have been chosen for this position,” Dr. Lichter says. “This represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dovetail my personal, lifelong goals of improving the care and treatment of patients [with cancer] with that of an organization dedicated to the same mission.”
Dr. Lichter is one of the leading radiation oncology specialists in the United States and an expert in the field of breast cancer; he is known as an early advocate of breastpreserving surgery, lumpectomy, and radiation therapy for treatment of the disease. Before joining ASCO in a full-time capacity, Dr. Lichter will complete his tenure as Dean of the Medical School at the University of Michigan. While there, he was a professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology between 1984 and 1997, and in 1993 he was named the first Isadore Lampe Professor of Radiation Oncology, an endowed Chair at the University of Michigan. Prior to his professorship, he was Director of the Radiation Therapy Section of the National Cancer Institutes Radiation Oncology Branch.
Dr. Lichter suceeds Joseph S. Bailes, MD, who served as the Society’s Interim EVP and CEO while ASCO conducted a search for a permanent replacement for Charles M. Balch, MD, who returned to private practice in October 2005. Dr. Bailes will continue in the interim position through the fall of 2006 to ensure a smooth transition, and will also continue to serve as Co-Chair of the ASCO Government Relations Council.
Dr. Hortobagyi praises Dr. Bailes for his leadership, noting that he “has done a superb job leading ASCO as the Interim EVP and CEO for the past nine months, and we are most grateful for his able leadership and service.”
