UBC dominates list of top-paid post-secondary employees

Province’s largest university says it must compete globally for talent

The University of B.C. again dominates the list of highest-paid postsecondary school employees, but for the first time in five years, the school’s president is not at the top of the list, according to The Sun’s exclusive public sector salary database.

This is because there was a change at the top during the 201415 fiscal year, with Arvind Gupta replacing Stephen Toope as president in July 2014, so neither spent the entire year in the position. (Gupta resigned unexpectedly in August 2015.)

This put radiology professor Francois Benard at the top of the universities and colleges list, with a salary of close to $500,000 — up from No. 3 the previous year.

The two presidents came in at No. 4 and 5, with Toope earning $443,438 and Gupta $442,280. The figures includes salaries, but can also include compensation such as bonuses, severance pay and other payments.

UBC accounted for nine of the 10 highest-paid university and college employees in B.C., with Simon Fraser University president Andrew Petter at No. 10. And UBC had 92 of the top 100 in the highestpaid category. The majority of the highest-paid UBC staff members worked in either the Faculty of Medicine or the Sauder School of Business. The reasons are that UBC is by far the largest in the province — one of the largest in the country — and must compete internationally for talent, a spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.

“Globally, UBC is consistently ranked in the top 40 of internationally-ranked universities,” Susan Danard wrote.

“To compete internationally for talent with those top-ranked universities and the private sector, UBC’s compensation must be competitive and commensurate with the responsibilities of the positions we are hiring for.”

UBC is also research-intensive, with the faculty attracting more than $530 million in research funding in 2015, she added.

“It’s also important to consider that UBC brings significant benefits to the provincial economy: The economic impact of the university is $12.5 billion annually.”

Among school districts, former Delta superintendent Dianne

Turner was the highest-paid employee in 2014-15, at $216,545. Turner was appointed by the B.C. government to oversee the Vancouver school district when Education Minister Mike Ber-

nier fired the entire board earlier this week. Superintendents in Surrey, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and a secretary-treasurer in the Surrey district rounded out the top 5.