Chief Innovation and Advancement Officer

The Monell Chemical Senses Center (Monell) is the world’s only independent, non-profit scientific institute dedicated to interdisciplinary research on taste, smell, and related senses. For more than half a century, Monell has been a global leader in sensory science and has advanced understanding of the chemical senses to improve health, safety, and well-being across people, animals, and the environment. Now, at a moment of significant momentum and opportunity, the center seeks an inaugural Chief Innovation & Advancement Officer (CIAO) to lead an integrated strategy that connects science to supporters, ideas to investment, and discovery to application.

Breakthroughs in biology, data science, and translational research are opening new pathways to impact, even as global challenges demand deeper collaboration among science, industry, philanthropy, and the public. Reporting directly to the Executive Director and President, Dr. Benjamin P.C. Smith, the CIAO will serve as a key member of Monell’s executive leadership team and lead an integrated portfolio encompassing Philanthropy; Marketing & Communications; Intellectual Property (IP) & Innovation; and Monell Insiders, the center’s corporate membership program. This is a rare opportunity for a strategic, entrepreneurial leader to partner with world-class scientists and visionary leadership to amplify the center’s impact, secure its long-term sustainability, and translate discovery into real-world benefit.

In support of its ambitious strategic plan to ensure its primacy in chemosensory research, the center’s founding benefactor, The Ambrose Monell Foundation, has committed a grant of up to $26 million—the largest single donation in Monell’s history—to expand and diversify its expertise by recruiting and nurturing its next generation of scientists and enhancing its physical infrastructure and research environment. The CIAO will play a pivotal role in shaping the next chapter of this work and in building the diversified, sustainable revenue base on which Monell’s future depends.

Jack Gorman is leading this search with Kahn Lee and Sandeep Kaur.

The Monell Chemical Senses Center shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR §§ 60-1.4(a), 60-300.5(a) and 60-741.5(a). These regulations prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals based on their status as protected veterans or individuals with disabilities and prohibit discrimination against all individuals based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Moreover, these regulations require that covered prime contractors and subcontractors take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment individuals without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, protected veteran status or disability.