Rhode Island’s life science agency has its first, full-time CEO after a legislative confirmation Tuesday.
The Rhode Island Senate’s unanimous vote — the chamber’s first appointment of the 2025 session — cements Dr. Mark Turco’s new position as president and CEO of the Rhode Island Life Science Hub. The agency’s 15-member board of directors signed a three-year contract with Turco in December, but required signoff of state lawmakers under the state’s fiscal 2024 budget, which created the agency.
The vote Tuesday came swiftly and without discussion. Turco attended with his family, who snapped cell phone photos of him waving to applauding lawmakers.
Finding a full-time, paid president to lead the nascent agency has been a priority since the volunteer board began meeting in January 2024.
Turco, a 25-year industry veteran whose resume includes clinical medicine, academia, research and medical startups, was picked from a pool of 300 candidates through a nationwide search. His breadth of experience, industry connections and local ties — he’s lived in Rhode Island for the last 12 years — made him the ideal candidate, Neil Steinberg, board president, told a Senate panel during a preliminary confirmation hearing on Jan. 9
As agency president, Turco will be charged with setting up a strategy and spending plan to put the Ocean State on the map as a life science hub, similar to Cambridge and Worcester, Massachusetts. His initial term lasts three years, expiring Jan. 15, 2028, with a corresponding $400,000 annual salary, per his contract.
The state’s fiscal 2024 spending plan seeded an initial $45 million for the Hub’s programs and staffing costs, though Turco has already indicated he plans to ask for more money in the state’s fiscal 2026 budget, along with seeking private investment and grant funding.
Sens. Lou DiPalma and Thomas Paolino were absent from the confirmation vote.
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