Leadership

Echoing the sentiments of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine’s CEO Janet Lambert, the Gates Center concluded 2020 grateful for all we and our Anschutz Medical Campus have learned, achieved and received. We look particularly forward to the year to come, which will include welcoming Marc Bonaca, MD, MPH, FAHA, FACC, to our Gates Center Advisory Board. Marc serves as the executive director of CPC Clinical Research and Community Health and is the inaugural holder of the William R. Hiatt Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Research.

Aspirationally and with great appreciation,

Dennis R. Roop Director, Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine Charles C. Gates Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology

When COVID-19 struck, we joined the rest of the world in not knowing what 2020 would bring. Instead, not even a global pandemic could derail the scientific advancements, investor appetite, and maturing pipeline that made headlines for the regenerative medicine sector in 2020. For a once aspirational sector, the future is now. ~Alliance for Regenerative Medicine CEO Janet Lambert

GATES ADVISORY BOARD

Janelle Blessing Marilyn Coors, Ph.D. Donald Elliman, Co-Chair Cathey Finlon Yvette Pita Frampton William Hiatt, M.D.* Kevin Reidy Daniel Ritchie, Co-Chair Dennis Roop, Ph.D. Wagner Schorr, M.D. Geoff “Duffy” Solich Ann Sperling Rick Stoddard Diane Gates Wallach, Co-Chair

CU President Mark Kennedy joined the Gates Advisory Board Fall Meeting on September 15, 2020.

Will Hiatt

It was with great sadness that the Gates Center and many other people and organizations heard of Will Hiatt’s passing in December 2020. Without Will and his abiding professional and personal relationships with Charlie Gates and the Gates family, the Gates Center might never have seen the light of day. Further, the Center would not have been blessed with a brilliant, dedicated, wise and influential friend as a member of the Gates Center Advisory Board and a guiding light for the Center’s early, formative years.

At the virtual Charlie’s Picnic held in August 2020, Will recounted meeting Charlie Gates many years before when he joined the board of the Colorado Outward Bound School of which Charlie was a founder. Will said,

William R. Hiatt, M.D. June 1, 1950 – December 8, 2020

That experience and insight into Mr. Gates taught me the role of leadership with integrity, purpose and vision, which is fundamental to the Gates Center today. Suddenly, he was my patient, friend and mentor on how to live life to the fullest, which he knew a lot about. Charlie was committed to science and discovery and the potential of stem cell research to treat disease and restore function. The Gates Center was his idea, and he carried it forth to completion through the hard work of Diane Wallach, John Gates, Dennis Roop and others. Charlie used to say, ‘throw your hat across the creek,’ an expression that came from the old American West when crossing rivers and creeks was difficult for covered wagons. Pioneers sometimes threw their hats to the other side of the creek as an incentive to cross. Throwing your hat was a solid commitment to move forward. It also means embracing risk to create something bigger than yourself that benefits things like our health and function. This has certainly happened at the Gates Center, and I would note that it is a tremendous model for the future success of our university.