New investments appointments boost UK's largest charity

24 November 2007

The Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest charity, today announces four new appointments to diversify and strengthen further its Investment Committee.

The Wellcome Trust, which has an asset base of £13.9 billion, was established in 1936 through an endowment in the will of Sir Henry Wellcome. Since the flotation of Wellcome plc in 1986, the Trust's investment returns have averaged 15 per cent per annum. The Trust spends over £500 million each year to support and facilitate innovative science and medicine on a global scale.

The Trust's assets are managed by the Investment Division and overseen by the Investment Committee. The assets are invested in a diverse set of public and private funds, aiming for capital growth ahead of inflation in the long term. Last year, the Trust became the first UK charity to be awarded an Aaa/AAA bond credit rating, the highest credit rating available, and subsequently issued sterling-denominated bonds.

Joining the Investment Committee will be key figures from the financial world. Rod Kent, Chairman of Bradford & Bingley plc, has been appointed to the Wellcome Trust's Board of Governors and the Investment Committee. He will take up his positions in February 2008.

Naguib Kheraj, former Group Finance Director of Barclays plc, and Tim Church, President of the McKinsey Investment Office, join the Investment Committee this month.

In addition to these three appointments, Nick Moakes, formerly from BlackRock Investment Management, joined the Wellcome Trust's investment team in November as Head of Equities, Asia and Emerging Markets. Nick will also join the Investment Committee.

"We welcome the new appointments to our Investment Committee," says Sir William Castell, Chairman of the Wellcome Trust. "The Wellcome Trust's portfolio has demonstrated an extraordinary performance over the past 20 years to compete as a world class fund. Being able to bring in figures of the calibre of our new appointees will help ensure that the Trust's assets continue to grow."

The new appointments were also welcomed by Danny Truell, Chief Investment Officer at the Trust.

"Investments are key to the Wellcome Trust's business, enabling us to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas," says Danny. "These new appointments, with their extensive experience and breadth of vision, will help the Trust continue to challenge conventional investment thinking and generate outstanding returns."

Contact

Craig Brierley
Media Officer
Wellcome Trust
T 020 7611 7329
E c.brierley@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes for editors

1. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK, managing a highly diversified investment portfolio (£13.9bn as at 30 September 2006).

In 2005/6, the Trust's charitable expenditure was over £500m, including grant funding to support and facilitate innovative science and medicine on a global scale. The Wellcome Trust funds a diverse range of high-profile research that will lead to better understanding of major diseases and the development of better treatments for future generations including:

Sequencing of the human genome - Wellcome Trust-funded researchers sequenced one-third of the human genome, one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in recent times. Scientists are currently using this data to identify the genes that increase the chances of developing major diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.
The development of a new treatment for malaria - a Wellcome Trust study by Professor Nick White showed that artesunate drugs, derived from a Chinese herb, are more effective than quinine in the treatment of malaria, prompting the World Health Organization to change its recommendations for the treatment of malaria.
Pioneering cognitive behavioural therapies - Wellcome Trust-funded researchers have developed therapies addressing a wide range of psychological disorders from bulimia to post traumatic stress disorder.
Establishing the UK Biobank - the Wellcome Trust is helping to fund UK Biobank, a project of unprecedented size. By collating lifestyle and medical information from 500 000 volunteers, researchers hope to identify environmental and genetic factors that cause common conditions such as cancer and heart disease.
Launch of the National Science Learning Centre - a centre that delivers professional development and training for primary and secondary science teachers enabling them to improve the quality of science education in UK classrooms.

2. The Investment Committee members (as of 1 November 2007) are:

William Castell, Chairman, Wellcome Trust
Alastair Ross Goobey, Governor, Wellcome Trust
Tim Church, McKinsey & Company
Peter Davies, Senior Limited Partner, Joint Manager UK Fund with Lansdowne Partners Limited
Naguib Kheraj, former Group Finance Director, Barclays PLC
Stewart Newton, Chairman, Real Return Holdings Company Limited
Hugh Stevenson, Chairman of Equitas Limited
Mark Walport, Director, Wellcome Trust
Danny Truell, Chief Investment Officer, Wellcome Trust
Peter Pereira Gray, Co-Head of Portfolio Management, Investment Division, Wellcome Trust
David Phillipps, Director of Finance, Wellcome Trust
Joanna Peart, Chief of Staff, Investment Division, Wellcome Trust

3. Biographies:

Rod Kent

Rod Kent took on the chairmanship of Bradford & Bingley in November 2002, having stepped down as Group Managing Director of Close Brothers Group, the independent merchant bank. At Bradford & Bingley he has successfully overseen a change of chief executive and has built a high-quality Board.

He studied Greats (classics) at Oxford University and started his City career on the investment management side of Schroders, before leaving to achieve an MBA at INSEAD in 1972.

In 1974 he joined Close Brothers, where he led the management buy-out of the bank from Consolidated Goldfields in 1978. In 1984 he brought the company to the stock market. Stepping down in 2002 as Group Managing Director, he remained on the Board as a non-executive director, becoming non-executive chairman a year ago.

Rod has other non-executive directorships at Whitbread, the hotels and restaurants group and Grosvenor, the private property group. He is currently a Trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation.

Naguib Kheraj

Naguib Kheraj is a Senior Adviser to Barclays plc. He recently led the transaction team working on Barclays's proposed merger with ABN AMRO and the significant investments in Barclays made by Temasek and China Development Bank.

Naguib was previously Group Finance Director of Barclays plc, a position in which he served from January 2004 through March 2007. Naguib was a Director of Barclays plc from 2004 to 2007 and a member of the Barclays Group Executive Committee from 2003 to 2007. He also served as a Non-Executive Director of ABSA Group Limited, the South African bank in which Barclays holds a controlling interest, between 2005 and 2007.

Before becoming Finance Director, Naguib was Chief Executive of Barclays Private Clients, the wealth management division of the Barclays Group, an appointment he took up in 2003.

Naguib joined Barclays in 1997 and worked in both Barclays Capital and Barclays Global Investors for a number of years. He served as Deputy Chairman of Barclays Global Investors, the institutional asset management division of the Barclays Group, and was Global Head of Investment Banking at Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of the Barclays Group. He was also responsible for Barclays Capital's Private Equity business. Prior to this Naguib was Chief Operating Officer of Barclays Capital. In this role he was centrally involved in the formulation and execution of the strategy of Barclays Capital following the restructuring of Barclays's investment banking business in 1997 and had broad responsibilities for all control and support functions in Barclays Capital.

Before joining Barclays, Naguib was Co-Head of Global Capital Markets and a member of the Executive Committee at Robert Fleming. Prior to this he was a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer Europe at Salomon Brothers in London. Naguib joined the Investment Banking Division of Salomon Brothers in 1986 and was involved in a wide range of corporate finance business prior to being appointed Chief Financial Officer in 1993. He left Salomon Brothers in 1996.

Naguib is a member of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Ismaili Studies, an educational institution that promotes scholarship and learning on Islam. He is also Chairman of the National Committee of the Aga Khan Foundation (UK) and a Member of the Development Board of The Prince's Trust. Naguib is a member of the Steering Committee of Mosaic, an initiative of Business in the Community involved in mentoring for young Muslims in the UK.

Tim Church

Tim Church is president of MIO Partners, Inc. the Investment Office of McKinsey & Company, Inc. McKinsey is an international firm of management consultants.

MIO is responsible for managing a range of investment programmes for McKinsey current and former partners as well as the firm's retirement plans. MIO has a long history of investing in alternative asset strategies including a 30-year hedge fund of funds track record. MIO comprises a team of 60 people in offices in New York, London and Munich.

Tim joined McKinsey in 1991, to start and head up the European investment activity for the Firm, taking over the running of the global activity in 1997. Prior to that, he was a director of Advent Ltd, a UK based venture capital firm. He qualified as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse in London. Tim received an honours degree in Engineering Science from the University of Durham.

Nick Moakes

Nick joins the Trust from BlackRock Investment Management where he was until recently Head of the Asia Pacific investment team and Co-Head of Emerging Markets. He has over 20 years' experience in Asia and over 15 years' experience in global equity markets. He graduated with a first class honours degree in Modern History and Economics from Balliol College, Oxford, and is a chartered financial analyst. Prior to joining BlackRock in 1997 he lived in Hong Kong for nine years, and is a Chinese speaker. He started his career in the Diplomatic Service, where he specialised in Hong Kong and China.