Staff Editorial: Neutron Bill's windfall

This year, William N. Kelley will make over a million dollars.

He made over a million dollars last year, and next year, he'll make that much too. And the year after that. And after that. And so on, until the year 2006.

Mind you, of course, that the former Health System CEO and Medical School dean will be cashing his checks without putting in so much as a day of work in those capacities. That's just how easy it is, apparently, when you're the beneficiary of a golden parachute.

From 1989 until his dismissal in February 2000, Kelley was one of the most dominant figures in the world of academic medicine. As the leader of Penn's $3 billion health system, he presided over the University's four major hospitals, as well as its clinical practices and ongoing research initiatives. Considered along with his responsibilities as dean of the Medical School, it's easy to understand why his multi-million-dollar salary usually eclipsed those of all other Penn administrators -- including University President Judith Rodin.

But things turned sour for the man nicknamed "Neutron Bill" in the late 1990s. Red ink started piling up from poor investments earlier in the decade. Changes in the healthcare and insurance industries made it harder to recoup losses. And before you knew it, Kelley's sterling reputation was tarnished, and his tenure as CEO and dean was terminated.

That's why it's so surprising that even in the face of such staggering financial loss -- which nearly forced Penn to sell off the Health System -- the University could even think of offering Kelley such a lucrative package of severance pay: $7.8 million over seven years.

Per year, it's more money than Rodin currently earns; more money, even, than Interim CEO Robert Martin made last year, when he was able to finally stop the financial bleeding.

A package of that size would be understandable had Kelley managed to turn the tide of losses before his departure. It may have even been acceptable if the Health System weren't losing quite so much -- over $300 million in the last two years of Kelley's tenure -- when his time at the helm came to an end.

But none of those things happened, and apparently, they weren't major considerations of University administrators when assigning Kelley his final compensation.

Unfortunately, it seems that setting him up with a cushy golden parachute, was.

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