Retiring chief looks back at cancer society successes

John Seffrin, 70, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society, will retire next Friday after 40 years with the venerable nonprofit cancer-fighting organization, including 23 at the helm.

In an interview this week, he talked about some of the 102-year-old society's accomplishments under his leadership, financial issues, and his plans.

In 2009, the society (ACS) trademarked the slogan "Official sponsor of birthdays" to highlight that its work to prevent cancer, detect it early, and improve treatment helps people live longer.

Seffrin said he was proudest "that we've seen 22 successive years of downturn" in overall cancer mortality rates. That means "1.5 million people will have birthdays who would have been dead if the death rates were the same as in 1991."

In 2001, he spearheaded creation of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, a nonprofit sister advocacy organization that has lobbied for such things as federal funding of research, regulation of tobacco by the Food and Drug Administration, and enactment of the Affordable Care Act.

"We spent every nickel of our 2007 advertising budget to help people see the broken health-care system through the cancer lens," he said. "As controversial as the Affordable Care Act was and continues to be, many people miss the forest for the trees. There is no scenario where we can go back. We now have a chance to build a better health-care system."

ACS has nearly 6,000 employees and three million volunteers. It also had a lot of redundancy in its governing structure until a recent multiyear restructuring.

"We had literally 60 separate boards of directors - one for every state and some big cities, as well as the national," Seffrin said. "Today, we have a new system: one board for the entire system. And that's just the tip of the transformation."

According to the society and news reports, the changes included shuffling upper management, merging regional divisions, and reducing seats on the board of directors.

Most of the money ACS raises - nearly $1 billion in 2013 - is from small donations, many through the signature community-based Relay for Life fund-raisers. The average donation, Seffrin said, is $48.

"We have to get more corporate gifts," he said.

With more corporate support, ACS could increase the proportion of the budget that goes to programs, services, and research from the current 72 percent to the goal of 80 percent, he said.

About $160 million, or 20 percent of the annual budget, goes to research conducted at 200 institutions and by society scientists. Although ACS boasts of having supported 47 researchers who went on to win Nobel Prizes, some critics say research funding should be higher.

Some philanthropy watchdog groups such as Charity Watch and Charity Navigator have criticized the compensation given to top ACS executives.

Seffrin said his salary this year was $702,000. But his 2010 package was $2.08 million, including $1.49 million in deferred compensation and retirement pay, according to a Chronicle of Philanthropy study.

Seffrin said some watchdog groups were "unfortunately too simplistic. If you're CEO of a multimillion-dollar institution, it's academic whether it's for profit or not; you need to compete for talent."

Seffrin, who has a Ph.D. in health education from Purdue University, will be succeeded as CEO by Gary M. Reedy, former vice president of government affairs with Johnson & Johnson.

Seffrin and his wife, Carole, a breast cancer survivor, will continue to live in Atlanta, where ACS has its headquarters. But he expects to spend more time on international health promotion. He is past president of the Geneva-based Union for International Cancer Control, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to the global fight against cancer.

Relatively cheap interventions such as vaccines and antismoking tobacco taxes could significantly reduce the "tsunami of non-communicable disease" that public health researchers are predicting, he said.

"If we sit on our hands, business as usual, there will be a $47 trillion loss in economic output because of premature deaths," he said. "It's a moral imperative. If we find a way to get these [interventions] done, we can save a lot of lives. If we don't, how are we going to be economically viable?"

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