Cheryl A. Moore

I wanted to find out “how things work” by trying on different hats to understand how a variety of businesses run, which I did by first becoming a CPA. Then I decided that I wanted to run businesses in the biomedical area. Most recently, before joining the Janelia Farm team at HHMI, I was senior vice president/chief operating officer at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California, then a $65 million independent basic biomedical research facility. But when Gerry Rubin asked me to join him in opening Janelia Farm, it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

From the time I worked pumping gas as a kid to the time I helped grow a start-up company to more than $1 billion in revenue, I've always focused on streamlining things and trying to make them work better. I'm a results-oriented person who doesn't like bureaucratic layers or unnecessary rules. I prefer to do business through common sense more than anything. We work that way at Janelia Farm.

My goal is to create an environment at Janelia Farm in which science can move forward without many of the bureaucratic hassles often found in other research environments. With HHMI's support and Gerry's vision, we have the unheard-of opportunity to create a unique research campus where people are free to pursue their best ideas in the most creative ways possible, working together with other great minds. Our operational infrastructure is designed to support that vision with a minimum of hassle. Our exceptional team of operational staff is committed to advancing the scientific mission at Janelia Farm with a high level of customer service. We’re aiming for a uniquely supportive environment in which researchers can focus their energy and attention exclusively on their work. I maintain an open-door policy and spend my time ensuring that we remain as flexible and supportive as possible, while resolving issues that impede scientific progress.

To facilitate collaborative projects that our researchers may want to pursue, I also work with business, scientific, and governmental leaders in our field. We'll develop creative ways to work with these leaders, enabling our researchers to more easily pull together innovative research structures to support collaborative teams, including those from outside Janelia Farm.

This is a great opportunity for us all to create the scientific environment we've hoped for, and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Cheryl A. Moore is the chief operating officer for HHMI's Janelia Farm Research Campus. Her portfolio includes strategic planning, budgeting, staffing, and overseeing all operational aspects of the campus's activities.

Before joining HHMI in March 2004, Moore was senior vice president and chief operating officer at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, a private, nonprofit life-sciences research center in La Jolla, California. A graduate of the University of San Diego, she has also held positions as vice president--strategic relations, vice president-national contracting, and vice president--finance at various health-care companies and was a certified public accountant at Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Moore is involved in numerous community and industry activities. She currently serves on the board of the Virginia Biotech Association and has been appointed by the Governor’s office to the board of the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park Authority. She has served on the boards of the University of San Diego School of Accountancy and the Healthcare Financial Managers Association and has been program chair for the Association of Independent Research Institutes. She was a member of the executive committee and academic chair for the international biotech meeting BIO 2001, a steering committee member for the formation of the San Diego Regional Cancer Institute, and program committee chair for the Bioscience Group of Athena, a group of executives in the technology industries, from 2002-2004. Moore was also active in the following San Diego-based organizations: BIOCOM, the Economic Development Corporation's Quality of Life, Housing and Infrastructure Committee, and the Corporate Directors Forum.