Gary Gilliland, president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, announced plans to step down from his post next year after a successor is found.

“After considering a number of factors — first and foremost, the interests of the Hutch — I believe this exceptional organization will be best served by a leader who is prepared to guide it into the next decade,” he wrote in an announcement on Tuesday.

While he did not provide more specific reasons for his decision, Gilliland said that he would remain at Fred Hutch in an emeritus role after a new president has been named.

“Gary is largely retiring but he wants to continue to be involved with the Hutch,” Matt McIlwain, chair of the board of trustees at Fred Hutch and managing director at Madrona Venture Group, told GeekWire in an interview.

“He was thinking, I’m 65, I’ve accomplished a lot,” McIlwain added. “We tried to talk him out of [the decision], but we wanted to respect his instincts.”

Gilliland has served as leader of the cancer research powerhouse since 2015. During his first year on the job, Gilliland made the bold prediction that it was “plausible that in 10 years we will have cures and therapies for most, if not all, human cancers.” Gilliland began his career as a blood cancer physician and scientist.

While Fred Hutch is known for its immunology expertise, Gilliland has been outspoken in his push to fight cancer with big data and cloud computing. Under his leadership, Fred Hutch added Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Mike Clayville, a vice president at Amazon Web Services, to its board of trustees and forged partnerships with the cloud tech giants.

The financial performance of the organization has been strong under Gilliland. The center’s endowment has quadrupled since he took over, and Fred Hutch has also benefited from the success of companies like Juno Therapeutics and Adaptive Biotechnologies, both of which spun out of Fred Hutch.

McIlwain, who is leading the search for a successor, said the most important quality he is looking for is “someone who has the respect of the scientific and research community.” Fred Hutch brought on executive search consultant Ilene Nagel, managing director at Russell Reynolds, to help find a replacement. McIlwain said the cancer center is aiming to appoint a new leader as early as the first quarter of next year.

Read the full text of Gilliland’s announcement below.