Dr. Paul Ogden will serve as interim executive VP and acting CEO of Texas A&M Health Science Center while the university looks to fill the vacancy left by a controversial leadership change.
Ogden, 58, is taking over after the abrupt departure of Dr. Brett Giroir, 54, who told local media that he was forced to resign on Monday with the arrival of Michael Young, Texas A&M University's new president.
Giroir told the Texas Tribune that he was advised that he would resign or be promptly terminated. He said Young told him that the school needed to become more interdisciplinary and obtain more research funding from the National Institutes of Health.
A spokesman for Young declined to comment when asked whether Giroir had been forced out. He instead provided a memo in which Young said "I appreciate the service of Dr. Brett Giroir."
Giroir leaves Texas A&M after almost two years at the helm of the Health Science Center. Late last year, he was chosen by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to serve as director of the Texas Task Force on Infectious Disease Preparedness and Response, which was quickly created in November at the height of the Ebola epidemic.
Before joining the hospital, he served as vice chancellor for strategic initiatives at the university and principal investigator for the university's Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing, a partnership with HHS that's focused on public health and emergency preparedness.
Ogden currently serves as interim dean for the Texas A&M College of Medicine and interim VP for clinical affairs, and will continue in those roles while taking on the new interim positions.
A board-certified general internist, Ogden served in several academic roles at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas, including director of graduate medical education and vice chair for academic affairs within the Texas A&M College of Medicine's internal medicine department. In 2010, he was appointed vice dean for academic affairs at the medical school, before being appointed interim dean three years later.
