President of Massachusetts Biotechnology Council
Finneran served as president of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council since he resigned from the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2004 until January 8, 2007. The council is a non-profit organization with more than 500 corporate and academic members, promoting, and supporting the state's biotechnology industry. It has been observed that the Finneran's value to the council has been primarily to be out of office, as Finneran was a vigorous and powerful opponent of stem cell research and repeatedly blocked legislative efforts to support stem cell research in Massachusetts. Finneran's reported salary was $416,000 a year. On January 8, 2007, less than a week after the plea agreement, Finneran resigned from Biotechnology Council; the council unanimously accepted his resignation. Finneran had been praised as a highly effective lobbyist; his resignation permitted an internal debate about having a felon for the Council's president to end.
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