UA graduate back in Washington as cancer task force director

Greg Simon
Greg Simon

WASHINGTON -- When Vice President Joe Biden needed an executive director for the White House Cancer Moonshot Task Force, he turned to an executive with Arkansas roots and experience battling the disease.

Greg Simon, 64, who grew up in Blytheville and graduated from the University of Arkansas, started work recently; his appointment was announced March 18. It's his second stint at the White House. From 1993 to 1997, Simon served as chief domestic policy adviser to Vice President Al Gore, specializing in economics, science and technology.

The task force he's leading will work to "accelerate our understanding of cancer and its prevention, early detection, treatment and cure," according to a White House statement.

As executive director, Simon will coordinate the task force's efforts. Its advisory report is due by Dec. 31.

Simon, a former vice president at Pfizer, also served as founding president of FasterCures, an organization that says it's dedicated to bringing together "patient advocates, researchers, investors, and policymakers from every sector of the medical research and development system to identify and eliminate the roadblocks that get in the way of a faster cure."

More recently, he served as CEO of Poliwogg, a company working to facilitate investments in life science and health care companies.

In 2014, Simon was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia; he knows firsthand the perils cancer poses, but also the promise of advanced medicine.

"I'm in complete remission and very healthy, so my doctors are optimistic that I will not have to go through this again or if I do, it will be many years from now," he said.

The White House needed to find someone quickly; President Barack Obama's second term ends in less than 10 months.

Biden's chief of staff remembered the Arkansan's first stint in the White House. Steve Ricchetti was President Bill Clinton's deputy assistant on legislative affairs, and Simon said they worked on "really complicated multiagency, multi-industry legislation around the reform of the telecommunications laws."

Simon said Ricchetti approached him about the new post, telling him, "You know the cancer space. You know the research space and you've worked in the White House before. We don't really have time to train anybody, so we want you to do this."

Added Simon: "How do you turn that down?"

News of Simon's selection delighted the people who grew up with him.

"Let's put it this way: All of my high school friends from Blytheville have been overwhelming my Facebook page, so I think I'm very honored to have this opportunity," Simon said in an interview Monday. "I wouldn't have volunteered to get cancer to make it even more meaningful, but that's how things turned out."

The task force is a top priority for the last year of the Obama administration.

In his State of the Union address, Obama called for a "new national effort" to defeat one of humanity's most dreaded diseases, telling Congress, "Let's make America the country that cures cancer once and for all."

Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer last year, would be handling "mission control," Obama said.

In a news release, the vice president said the White House is "fortunate" to have Simon's leadership on the issue.

"With his amazing breadth of experience, both in the public and private sector, he will bring an invaluable knowledge of the health care landscape to the Task Force. His background in medical research and his work to engage directly with patients will strengthen our efforts," Biden said. "Greg will be an important addition to the entire White House organization, and we are looking forward to welcoming him to the team."

Bill Bumpers, a Washington attorney and the son of the late Sen. Dale Bumpers, said Biden will be well-served by Simon.

"He's one of the brightest guys I know. He is absolutely perfectly suited for this job, having focused most of the last 20 years of his life on trying to do exactly what this program is designed to do, which is to try to achieve better cooperation and technological development to accelerate cures," Bumpers said.

Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School of Public Service, has known Simon since college.

"At the University of Arkansas he excelled in and out of the classroom. Throughout his professional life, Greg has achieved great success in both the public and private sectors. Now, having beaten leukemia and having experienced cancer up close and personal, Greg is an ideal choice to head up this important national initiative," Rutherford said in an email.

If Rutherford has his way, Simon will be visiting Little Rock before the assignment is through.

"After he gets settled in his new position, I hope he will come speak at the Clinton School and visit the Winthrop Rockefeller Cancer Center at UAMS," Rutherford said.

Simon is comfortable in medical, business and academic settings, friends say, but he has other talents as well.

At UA, "Greg was in a band called the Great Zambinis and played drums," recalls Steve Davison, who has known Simon since the early 1970s. From there, Simon traveled west, earning a law degree from the University of Washington in Seattle and excelling in mock trials.

After finishing school, he headed to Capitol Hill, working as staff director of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

While there, Davison said, Simon became an expert on biotechnology and biomedicine.

"Greg is a unique individual that combines great intelligence with a remarkable ability to connect with people on all levels. Greg is equally at home with foreign leaders, Wall Street executives and political leaders as he is with regular folks of all levels," Davison said in an email. "His charm and his wit are also a large part of the reason so many people find him compelling and someone that people want to work with."

When Simon's not working to cure cancer, "he plays the cello, he loves the New York Yankees and he has a beautiful wife and two beautiful children," Davison said, adding, "the world is a better place with Greg Simon in it."

NW News on 03/28/2016

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