By SUSAN JONES
The Board of Trustees executive committee and compensation subcommittee voted on Dec. 18 to increase Chancellor Joan Gabel’s base salary by 20% to $1.25 million; Provost Joe McCarthy’s base pay by 15% to $645,000; and give 2.5% raises to the seven other non-trustee University officers.
Gabel also will have her annual retention payments extended through 2030 and increased
from $100,000 per year to $150,000 in 2028 and $200,000 in 2029 and 2030. She received $100,000 payments in 2026 and 2027, as was part of her original deal. The chancellor’s annual deferred compensation contribution will be increased to $500,000 per year, vesting in 2030. If she remains as chancellor through July 1, 2030, she would receive $2.9 million in deferred compensation.
In addition, McCarthy will receive $50,000 per year in deferred compensation that will be vested in 2030, and Phil Bakken, vice chancellor and secretary of the Board of Trustees will get a one-time $30,000 performance bonus.
Gabel said in a statement that she will donate this year’s raise to University programs.
“With gratitude to the Board of Trustees for recognizing our shared successes, and with deep appreciation for this unique and challenging moment for many in our Pitt community, I am donating the raise this year to support students through our Finish Line Grants, to provide for faculty and staff who rely on our emergency funds, and to establish a scholarship in my parents’ honor that recognizes the power of Pitt teaching and research.”
Gabel was hired in 2023 with a base pay of $950,000. She was not eligible for a raise in 2024, and for 2025 she asked that her 2.5% raise be added to the staff’s Compensation Modernization project. Salaries for Pitt senior leadership are for the calendar year and are generally set by the Board of Trustees at a meeting in mid-December.
“Serving as chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh is a profound honor, and I am grateful for the opportunity to support our people and our impact,” she said.
The trustees decided on these raises after developing a new Officer Compensation Philosophy with the help of a third-party compensation consultant. The new philosophy was part of the board’s comprehensive governance review that began in 2024.
The trustees’ Compensation Subcommittee said in its resolution that market conditions and significant turnover have resulted in the chancellor’s compensation “becoming misaligned with the pay positioning intended by the Officer Compensation Philosophy.”
Board of Trustees Chair John Verbanac said at the meeting that since the initial compensation study was conducted before Gabel was hired, “there has been significant turnover among peer chief executives at AAU institutions. In fact, nearly 60% of chancellors for AAU public and private institutions have turned over within that short period of time. And as we speak, there are 10 active searches going on for chancellors.”
Verbanac said the officer compensation philosophy “affirms the board’s commitment to attracting, retaining and rewarding officers in an appropriate, reasonable and market-competitive manner, while clearly linking compensation to both organizational and individual performance and to the Plan for Pitt.”
He cited several accomplishment by the chancellor and her team in 2025, “in the face of great adversity”:
Met the year-one objectives of the Plan for Pitt 2028 in September.
Record number of applicants. “A Pitt degree has never been in higher demand than it is today,” he said.
Record research expenditures and record invention disclosures.
Record graduation rates
Best in class postgraduate placement — 96% of undergraduates are working full time or enrolled in graduate school six months after their graduation.
Fourth consecutive year with more than $200 million in philanthropic gifts and commitments.
“Why does it matter?” Verbanac asked. “These accomplishments and more help underpin our ability to continue growing what is a $6.6 billion economic impact on the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
In a statement, Verbanac said, “The University of Pittsburgh has experienced tremendous momentum in recent years, and the board recognizes that sustaining this trajectory requires retaining leaders who have been instrumental in our success.”
Verbanac said the chancellor’s new contract is “fully aligned” with the new compensation philosophy and puts her in the 50th to 60th percentile for Pitt’s peer group.
PEER GROUP CRITERIA
“These are turbulent times for higher education, and Chancellor Gabel has met this moment with steady leadership, sound judgment, and an unwavering commitment to what is best for the Pitt community,” Verbanac said. “We have full confidence in her continued leadership and vision, and we are deeply grateful for her service as she guides the University of Pittsburgh toward even greater heights.”
Gabel’s new salary still puts her behind Penn State’s president and appears to be less than what the new Temple University president is making.
Penn State President Neeli Bendapudi’s base salary was increased 47% by the university’s board of trustees in September, taking it from $950,000 to $1.4 million. Her new contract runs until June 30, 2032, and stipulates that she will receive an automatic 3.5% increase each year of the contract.
The salary of Temple President John Fry, who took office in November 2024, has not been publicly disclosed. But his predecessor, Jason Wingard, was making almost $1 million before his resignation in 2023, and Fry came to Temple from Drexel University, where he was paid total compensation of $2.5 million in 2022.
Other salaries
The base salaries of other members of the senior leadership team who received raises Dec. 18 from the Board of Trustees for calendar year 2026, include:
Joseph McCarthy, provost and senior vice chancellor, $645,000; up from $558,625 in 2025
Dwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance and chief financial officer, $645,750. Pinkney who started at Pitt in July 2024 at a salary of $630,000
Anantha Shekhar, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean of the School of Medicine, $1,139,088, up from $1,111,305 in 2025
Rob Rutenbar, senior vice chancellor for research, $482,893; up from $472,115
Geovette Washington, senior vice chancellor and chief legal officer, $487,522; up from $475,631
Philip J. Bakken, vice chancellor and secretary of the Board of Trustees, $307,500; who started in June 2024 at a salary of $300,000
Jeffer Choudhry, chief investment officer, $797,362; up from $777,914
Paul Lawrence, treasurer, $450,747; up from $439,753
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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