When a frustrated Peter Huntsman requested a late-February meeting with University of Utah President David Pershing, he hoped to resolve a monthslong funding dispute over the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The way he saw it, the U. had failed to give the institute and its director, Mary Beckerle, the $13.5 million per year outlined in a memorandum of understanding.
Pershing had his own take on the financial dispute, but he also had bigger goals, which he spelled out in a Feb. 25 email to Vivian Lee, then the University of Utah Health Care CEO.
He wondered if there were a way to agree to Huntsman’s demands “but take total control of all cancer operations within the university.