Executive Compensation at New York Blood Center

The blood banking industry is truly one of the most unusual businesses in this country:  the participants rely on a donated product which they collect, test, process, and then distribute.  But, the paradox is they get the product (donated blood) for free and sell it for a profit (their cost is in collecting, testing, processing and distributing).

Most people are aware of the American Red Cross but there are lots of other players including an organization called the New York Blood Center. Based out of New York, NY this tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization collects donated blood, tests it, processes it by breaking it up into salable components (i.e platelets, plasma, etc), and the sells the various blood products to about 500 hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Rhode Island.

New York Blood Center is governed by 23 independent voting members, although the Form 990 (2018 for the year ending March 31, 2019) lists 24 which appears due to timing differences.  19 of the 24 (79%) of the directors are male while 5 (21%) are female.

For the year ending March 31, 2019, the New York Blood Center reported total revenue of $391 million, most of which came from blood services and medical programs ($346 million). Expenses totaled $388 million (including $12 million in depreciation) with two major expenses:  supplies and testing fees ($175 million) and compensation ($137 million).

1,266 employees received $137 million in compensation which equates to an average compensation of $108,000.  133 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the 17 most highly compensated reported to be:

• $1,791,197:  Christopher Hillyer, President and CEO
• $  750,607:  Elizabeth McQuail, EVP, COO
• $  674,133:  Beth Shaz, EVP, Chief Medical Officer
• $  550,391:  C Elizabeth Gibson, CFO
• $  502,816:  Jordana G Schwartz, SVP, General Counsel and Secretary
• $  452,215:  Betsy Jett, SVP, Quality and Regulatory Affairs
• $  428,783:  Robert Purvis, SVP, Customer Service
• $  415,081:  Mohandas Narla, VP, LFRKI
• $  413,568:  Pablo Rubinstein, SVP, NCVP
• $  379,196:  Bruce Sachais, Executive Medical Director
• $  377,007:  Michele Scaggiante, VP, CIO
• $  365,622:  Connie Westhoff, Executive Director, Immunohematology
• $  335,570:  Donna Strauss, VP, Enterprise Lab Service
• $  322,777:  Patricia Killeen, VP, Enterprise Blood Ops
• $  297,709:  David Graham, Executive Director, CBCKC
• $  291,493:  Bernadette Tiso, Deputy General Counsel
• $  165,132:  Doriane Gloria, VO, HR

The 17 most highly compensated employees received nearly $9 million in compensation.  11 of the 17 (65%) most highly compensated employees are female while 6 of the 17 (35%) are male.

Christopher Hillyer, Elizabeth McQuail, Mark Schmidtlien, Jordana Schwartz, Beth Shaz, David Tendler, Bernadette Tiso, and Stephen Wurtzler have a business relationship. No further details are provided.

It is important to note the most highly compensated employee, Christopher Hillyer, the President and CEO received nearly $1.8 million in compensation in 2018. Compare this to the President and CEO of the American Red Cross (an organization that has $2.8 million in revenue and $1.4 billion in net assets), Gail McGovern who received $709,000 in compensation in 2018.

5 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation:

• $1,984,135:  ATOS IT Solutions and Service, of Columbus, OH for IT services
• $1,633,884:  Incept Corporation, of Canton, OH for donor marketing
• $1,527,761:  All Systems Messenger, of Wantagh, NY for messenger services
• $1,087,355:  Oracle America, of Dallas, TX for software
• $  880,018:  Italian Global Services, of New York, NY for security

To read the IRS Form 990 (2018 for the year ending March 31, 2019), click here.