Topeka ? Clay Blair, who has served as the only chairman of the Kansas Bioscience Authority since its formation in 2004, announced Tuesday he was resigning amid questions raised by a newspaper about his expenses.

In a letter to Bioscience Authority board members, Blair, a Johnson County businessman, gave no reason for his departure.

But he said that in his efforts to steer the state away from complacency, “there surely have been times when I could have done this in wiser or more respectful ways.”

Blair said Tuesday night that he timed his resignation to coincide with the Olathe City Council deeding about 90 acres of land for a bioscience research park.

“It’s a great time (to resign),” he said after the Olathe meeting. “You end on a high note.”

He said questions about his expenses were not the reason for his resignation.

“Candidly, I don’t know who’s driving that,” he said. “There might be people who aren’t excited about the Olathe campus.”

Blair was praised by state leaders as setting the foundation for efforts to increase bioscience research and development in Kansas.

Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, lauded Blair’s work on the Bioscience Authority.

“With Clay Blair at the helm, the KBA has gained national recognition and respect,” Morris said. “I sincerely thank Clay for his contributions to the KBA and to the state. We wish him well in every future endeavor.”

The Bioscience Authority has lured six new companies to Kansas, including Identigen in Lawrence and worked to create the campus in Olathe.

But nearly three weeks ago, The Kansas City Star reported that Blair’s Lenexa-based business Clay Blair Services Corp. received $46,000 from the Bioscience Authority over 11 months for “office expenses and clerical support” and Blair received $23,239 for reimbursement for expenses.

Expenses had approval

Blair and his supporters, many of them on the Bioscience Authority board, defended the expenses, saying the payments were approved unanimously by executive committee members. In addition, they said, Blair did an extraordinary amount of work for the Bioscience Authority and was instrumental in recruiting businesses to the state.

State Rep. Kenny Wilk, R-Lansing, a sponsor of the legislation that led to the Bioscience Authority, said Blair put Kansas on the bioscience map.

“When we started this thing, Clay Blair got handed a 50-page piece of legislation and was told, ‘Go forth and succeed.’ There was nothing – not a building, not a secretary.”

State Sen. Nick Jordan, R-Olathe, agreed, saying Blair was the key figure in bioscience development.

“He was it for two years, plus he was trying to run his own business,” Jordan said.

In October 2006, Tom Thornton was hired as president and chief executive of the authority.

Jordan said he didn’t see anything inappropriate in the reimbursements to Blair.

“Everything he has done, the authority, or the executive committee, signed off on,” he said.

He said Blair brought needed innovation and creative thinking to Kansas’ bioscience effort.

“His talents will be missed,” Jordan said.

And Wilk said that while some may have been uncomfortable with Blair’s style, his energy and deal-making ability were exactly what the Bioscience Authority needed.

“We set this up as an authority and not another state agency. We want it to be entrepreneurial, responsive and to cut through the red tape,” Wilk said.

Of Blair, he said, “We couldn’t have had a finer leader. It’s a sad day to see him leave the KBA.”

Resignation ‘a loss’

One Bioscience Authority director called Blair’s resignation “a loss for the Kansas Bioscience Authority and the state of Kansas.”

“He has done a superb job in leading the organization since its formation in 2004,” said Dolph Simons Jr., who also is chairman of The World Company, which owns the Lawrence Journal-World. “He has excelled in attracting bioscience-related businesses to Kansas with close to 3,000 employees.

“His resignation means a less effective Kansas Bioscience Authority, which had so much potential to help make Kansas a better and stronger state, retaining and attracting bright men and women in the bioscience field.”

Prior to serving on the Bioscience Authority, Blair had served as chairman of the Kansas Board of Regents. He also led a corporation that oversaw research building projects at the Kansas University Medical Center and Kansas State and Wichita State universities.

Morris will name a replacement member to the authority this week and the panel will select a new chair.