Top officials’ salaries increased from 2020 to 2021, according to University tax forms.
As a nonprofit institution, the University is required to report its revenues and expenses to the IRS via Form 990 each fiscal year, which begins July 1 and ends June 30, and the highest-paid employees’ compensations from the University and “related organizations” for each calendar year. The form reveals that former University President Thomas LeBlanc’s compensation grew from $1,246,803 in 2020 to $1,527,713 in 2021 — a $280,910 pay increase — prior to the end of his term in December 2021.
The documents show that former interim University President Mark Wrighton, who began his term Jan. 1, 2022, had no reportable compensation for 2021 because officials recorded their tax information under the calendar year, according to a University spokesperson. Prior to his tenure at GW, Wrighton served as the chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis until 2019 and was the seventh highest-paid private university president in the country, collecting more than $2.8 million in total compensation.
Former Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Mark Diaz experienced a pay increase from $852,686 in 2020 to $1,318,578 in 2021 — a $456,892 bump — before leaving his position in June 2022, according to the form.
Diaz began his GW tenure in August 2018 and oversaw facilities repairs and the consolidation of the IT department but left the University in June 2022 amid tension with faculty for his alleged involvement in a University project that monitored student, faculty and staff movement across campus.
LeBlanc’s pay dropped from $1,451,969 in 2018 — the 40th highest private university president compensation that year — to $1,362,178 in 2019. He took a slight pay cut due to the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, taking a $115,375 decrease from 2019 to 2020.
Highly compensated employees also include Barbara Bass — the dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and CEO of the Medical Faculty Associates, an independent group of D.C. doctors who teach students in the School of Medicine and Health Sciences — who received $1,324,917 in 2021, which is $81,358 more than her $1,243,559 compensation in 2020.
Shahram Sarkani, a professor of engineering management and systems engineering and director of GW Online Engineering Programs, earned $1,214,539 in 2021 and $1,196,956 in 2020.
The University reported foreign investments in Brazil and Switzerland in FY 21 and added on a new foreign investment in the United Kingdom in FY 22. A University spokesperson declined to comment on the amount of foreign investments or what the University invested in. GW employs workers abroad and holds international financial accounts to support the University’s “international endeavors,” according to the spokesperson.
GW is also required to report its top five highest-paid independent contractors: the MFA; Clark Construction Group, a building and infrastructure group that built the Science and Engineering Hall and District House in 2016; 2U, Inc., an educational online program management company; Aramark Services Inc., a food service provider; and Laughlin Marinnacio & Owens Inc., a public relations agency.
Officials paid $33,668,500 to 2U, Inc. in FY 22 — $15,603,957 more than the $18,064,543 GW paid them in FY 21 for online graduate course materials to accommodate for rising online course enrollment.
Experts in higher education said government leaders have scrutinized online course companies because universities that employ companies like 2U spend more on buying the course materials than making revenue on the online courses.
Officials paid $35,065,530 to the MFA in FY 22, which includes a $15 million loan made to the group in December 2022. Wrighton said in January that he expects the MFA to break even by the end of FY 24.
