"Take Five" with Damian Desiderio

"Take Five" is an occasional feature in which we pose five questions to an MBL community member about their career, dreams, and passions. Here we profile Damian Desiderio, the MBL’s new Chief Financial & Operating Officer.

How did you come to your current position, and what excites you about leading the MBL as CFO & COO? 

I learned the ropes, and the nuances, of day-to-day financial operations at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory over a span of twenty-five years. During my tenure, I saw lots of upheaval: the dot-com bust, 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, the pandemic. 

I began looking for a place where I could take all the things that I learned and make an impact to help the institution grow. What really excites me about being at the MBL is that I have the titles of both Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. In my opinion, people are not all numbers and it’s important to appreciate the workings and the nuances of the organization to do well financially.

What inspires you to come into work every day?

The central thing that inspires me is how I can apply all my experience. There's so much to do here, and the people and the numbers will make it happen. What makes me excited is that I know I can affect change every day. 

We are separating from Chicago, there have been previous financial difficulties, and people are mired in tradition so we need to jumpstart them, and I feel that I can bring that here. I can motivate folks, I can help, and it's just inspiring.

One of the things that I prided myself on doing while at Cold Spring was partnering with all the department heads to prepare the budget. I sat down with them to listen. There would be weird things on the budget, and I would have the directors explain these nuances that had nothing really to do with preparing the budget, but it gave me context. That context mattered because I was their representative to the board, and it helped me support them when I went to the board.

What accomplishments in your career or life have meant the most to you? 

One is when I became a CPA. Attaining that demarcation was something I set out to achieve at sixteen, and it’s the thing that has given me the leverage to do everything I want to do. 

Another is having a family and getting settled down. Having that first child, becoming a father, and having somebody that you can mold and create and share is a completely different way of living and acting. And I knew that, but I didn't know that. 

And then, becoming a controller at Cold Spring, and finally getting this position at the MBL. I feel really blessed and lucky to be given this opportunity. I pinch myself every day that I get to do this. 

Outside of work, what are your passions?

I’m very passionate about family. My wife and I both come from a family of three. My wife makes sure that we do something with our three children all the time which is something I really cherish. 

Being here, I also hope to start cycling again. I used to bike twenty miles a day down to the beach. 

What are your goals for the MBL for 2026 and beyond? 

One of my goals for the MBL is to see more organization around how we communicate. I think that people are really used to the way things work here, and that has worked for us in many ways, but it also could be improved. I think communication that gets everyone talking to each other and energized is key to making this place better. 

The separation from Chicago makes me excited, because it gives us a clean slate and an open forum to go forward however we want and not be beholden to a bigger entity.

We need to communicate better that the MBL is the place to invest time and money. We have the educational and intellectual power. We have a great history, and a promising future. 

At the end of the day, it really does come down to everyone across the MBL feeling our connection as a community and feeling that we're all together in this. There's nothing daunting. It may be challenging at times, but we can achieve this. It's communication that is going to get us there.

Regarding opportunities ahead for the MBL over the next few years, the more time I spend here, the more I believe the MBL is uniquely positioned at the intersection of scientific discovery, education, collaboration, and public engagement in a way very few institutions in the world are. What most excites me is the opportunity to help strengthen and modernize the institutional foundation beneath that mission while preserving the culture and identity that makes this place so special. 

I see tremendous opportunity for the MBL to continue growing as a global center for scientific collaboration and advanced research education while also expanding its role in technology integration, imaging, interdisciplinary partnership, and marine and ecosystem science.

I also think there is an opportunity to further expand educational programming across graduate, undergraduate, and secondary education levels while continuing to build upon the MBL’s unique strengths in courses, conferences, and scientific training. In many ways, my career has prepared me to not only manage operations and finance, but to help build alignment between people, infrastructure, and mission.

Having spent nearly twenty-five years at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, I’ve seen firsthand how transformative strong institutional culture and long-term stewardship can be. What drew me to the MBL was not only its extraordinary scientific history, but also the feeling that it remains a place with enormous potential ahead of it and a deep authenticity that people immediately feel when they arrive in Woods Hole. At this stage of my career, this is exactly the kind of place I want to help build and support.