St. Jude Children's Research CEO Evans announces retirement

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Director and CEO William Evans announced he will retire next year.

Evans, 63, spent the last decade as the Memphis cancer hospital's top administrator, working his way to the top after arriving 1972 as a student. He plans to stay until July 2014 or until the hospital's board of governors finds a replacement. The board plans to conduct an international search for a successor. Evans, who holds a doctorate in pharmacy, is the fifth CEO in the hospital's 51-year history. He replaced Arthur Nienhuis in 2004.

“Under Dr. Evans' leadership, we have achieved the best outcomes worldwide for the most frequent forms of childhood cancer, launched an $85 million effort to identify the genomic drivers of the most aggressive childhood cancers, and expanded our facilities by more than 500,000 square feet,” St. Jude board chairman Terry Burman said in a news release. “His significant contributions have made an indelible mark on our history, resulting not only in improved survival for children with cancer, but in better long-term quality of life.

Officials from St. Jude, the famous pediatric oncology facility founded by entertainer Danny Thomas, credited Evans with overseeing a variety of achievements during this tenure. They included improving cancer cure rates, documenting equal cure rates for black and white cancer patients at St. Jude and the construction of a $198 million project that includes a proton therapy center solely for children. He also helped establish a program for better understanding the long-term effects of pediatric cancer treatment.

Evans will continue to lead his research lab at St. Jude after his retirement.

“Like most scientists, I have a deep and abiding passion for discovery,” he said in the release. “Sustaining my NIH-funded research program throughout my tenure as CEO made me a better CEO for St. Jude, and I am now eager to return full time to pursue several recent findings from our lab.”