Issue date: 5 May 2004

Wellcome Trust appoints new Governor

Patricia Hodgson DBE has been appointed to the Board of Governors at the Wellcome Trust, the leading biomedical research charity. Until recently she was the Chief Executive of the Independent Television Commission, which was the regulatory body for commercial broadcasting prior to the establishment of Ofcom.

She was a Main Board Director at the BBC for eight years where she held the post of Director of Policy and Planning.

She is a member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life; a non-executive director of the GWR Group PLC and a non-executive of the Competition Commission.

Sir Dominic Cadbury, Chairman of the Wellcome Trust said: "I'm very pleased to welcome Patricia onto the Board and am sure she'll offer much to the Trust with her wealth of communications, strategic planning and public affairs experience."

Patricia Hodgson said: "I am delighted to be joining the Wellcome Trust, which has made so much world-class research possible. This is an important period for biomedical research."

Patricia Hodgson, who takes up her post in June 2004, is the third new Governor to be announced this year, following the appointment of Professor Peter Smith and Professor Ronald Plasterk in February.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Mark Anderson
Wellcome Trust Media Office
Tel: 020 7611 8612
E-mail: m.anderson@wellcome.ac.uk

Miriam de Lacy
Wellcome Trust Media Office
Tel: 020 7611 8285
E-mail: m.delacy@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes to editors:

1. The Wellcome Trust is an independent research funding charity established in 1936 under the will of the tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends over £400 million per annum.

2. Current members of the Wellcome Trust Board of Governors are:
Sir Dominic Cadbury (Chair)
Professor Martin Bobrow
Professor Christopher Edwards
Professor Adrian Bird
Professor Jean Thomas
Mr Edward Walker-Arnott
Mr Alastair Ross Goobey
Professor Ronald Plasterk
Professor Peter Smith (who takes his seat in June 2004).