Payroll records for 8,401 employees of the Research Foundation for the State University of New York (RF SUNY) for fiscal year 2026 are now available at SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s government transparency website.

The Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit educational corporation that administers sponsored research for SUNY campuses, funded largely through federal and state grants and private contracts. Its payroll ranges from postdoctoral researchers and laboratory technicians to administrative staff, and also includes supplemental research pay to SUNY faculty whose primary salaries are paid by the state.

Total pay reached $402.1 million, up 5.5 percent from $381.1 million the previous year, even as the number of employees fell 1.5 percent, from 8,526 to 8,401. Average pay rose 7.1 percent to $47,864.

775 employees were paid more than $100,000. Of those, 82 were paid in excess of $200,000.

The highest-paid employee was Maurice Raghubar, a vice president at the SUNY Center for Economic Development (CED), who was paid $397,144. The next highest top payees were:

• Ben Paul Friedman, Chief Operating Officer, $360,460
• Rich Agnello, General Counsel and Secretary, $323,645
• David Harame, Senior Director, $316,095
• Mary Grace Vannortwick, Assistant Vice President, $312,520

Four Locations Account for Most of the Payroll

RF employees work at more than 30 SUNY campuses and units, but four locations accounted for 63 percent of employees and 71 percent of total pay. The University at Buffalo had the largest workforce, with 1,775 employees paid a combined $77.1 million, followed by Stony Brook University, with 1,580 employees and $80.5 million.

The Center for Economic Development, with 977 employees, had the largest payroll of any location at $82.9 million, and its average pay of $84,867 was nearly double the foundation-wide average. The University at Albany followed with 924 employees and $43.8 million. Among locations with more than 100 employees, the foundation’s Central Office had the highest average pay, at $91,247 across 187 employees.

Principal Investigators Most Common, Engineers Among Highest Paid

Principal Investigator was the most common title, held by 1,000 employees, though their average RF pay was $27,323, since most are SUNY faculty receiving supplemental pay for research. They were followed by 712 Postdoctoral Associates (average pay of $42,333), and 419 Research Scientists ($52,732).

Among the most common titles, the highest-paid were Engineers, whose 151 employees averaged $139,310, and Directors, whose 129 averaged $135,774. Nearly all of the engineers, 145 of 151, worked at the Center for Economic Development.

The full Research Foundation payroll can be searched by name, title and location at SeeThroughNY.net. Launched in 2008, SeeThroughNY also includes payroll and pension data for state and local governments, public authorities and school districts across New York.

The Empire Center, based in Albany, is an independent, not-for-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to promoting policies that can make New York a better place to live, work and raise a family.

Photo by sofia inductgroup on Unsplash