Head of A&M Health Science Center forced to resign

The head of Texas A&M University's Health Science Center was forced to resign Monday morning, he told the Houston Chronicle.

Brett Giroir, who had been the executive vice president and chief executive officer for the Texas A&M Health Science Center since 2013, said  A&M's new President, Michael K. Young, told Giroir either to resign or be fired.

In the president's office Monday with multiple attorneys present, Young told Giroir he wanted to "move in a different direction" with someone who would bring in more National Institutes of Health research grants and would have a more interdisciplinary focus, Giroir said.

Texas A&M would only confirm that Giroir had resigned. In a statement, Young said he appreciates Giroir's service. Paul E. Ogden, the interim dean of A&M's College of Medicine and the interim vice president for clinical affairs, will take over Giroir's spot for now, Young said in the statement.

Giroir said he was not satisfied with Young's reasoning. The relatively young center -- founded in 1999 -- crossed the $100 million threshold after research spending increased by an unprecedented 34 percent in 2014. Even as federal research budgets remained flat, the center pulled in 68 percent more funding from the federal government.

To put that in perspective, Texas' largest health science center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, spends about $396 million annually. UT's Health Science Center in Houston spends about $220 million and UT Medical Branch in Galveston spends about $140 million.

"We were definitely moving in the right direction," Giroir said. "I did not quit. Until the moment I was given that choice, I was 100 percent looking forward to moving the Health Science Center and the university forward."

Giroir is the first official to leave A&M since Young took the helm of the flagship in May. Before Young arrived, A&M Chancellor John Sharp requested letters of resignation from all of the university's vice presidents, including Giroir, to give Young the freedom to build his own leadership team.

Giroir said he did not turn in a letter of resignation. He said he responded to the chancellor's request by saying he would be willing to turn in a letter if it was requested by the president.

Giroir also serves as the head of a state task force formed after last year's Ebola outbreak. It was not immediately clear if his position there will be affected by his resignation from A&M.