NEWS FROM THE SCHOOL COMMUNITY
IN BRIEF Making It All Happen
MASTER OF EFFICIENCY New COO Georgia Giatras has a proven track record of strategic planning that improves operations and saves costs. Some recent examples from her time at Stanford School of Medicine: Saved more than $1 million while overseeing the school’s lease portfolio through favorable negotiations of contract terms
JIM BLOCK
Improved cost analysis and decision-making by designing a system to track activity by location, type, trade, and provider Crafted financial strategies that helped drive faculty recruitment and expand clinical operations
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colorful hint told Georgia Giatras that moving from Stanford to UC Berkeley might serve her well. “I wear a lot of blue,” she says with a laugh. “I was routinely teased for that.” That’s no longer an issue for Giatras, who became Berkeley Law’s first chief operating officer and senior assistant dean in January. Still, ample challenges remain in a job she describes as “supporting and advancing the areas of finance and administration—while keeping faculty, students, and staff happy!” Giatras brings tremendous energy—and experience—to the position. From 2002 to 2006, she worked in finance and planning at NYU, within the Office of the Provost and in the School of Medicine. For the past seven years, she held myriad leadership roles at Stanford School of Medicine, most recently as director of finance and administration in Facilities Planning and Management. “It’s one thing to be exposed to many pieces of the university puzzle; it’s another thing to integrate them all while balancing competing priorities,” Giatras says. “You want to support so many wonderful programs and initiatives, but you have finite resources and time. How do you make it all happen?” Declining state support for Berkeley Law is yet another hurdle. And this is also Giatras’s FINDING GOLD: New COO Georgia Giatras brings a wealth of experience from Stanford and NYU.
S P R I N G 2015 | T R A N S C R I P T |
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