Eliza Manningham-Buller starts as Chair of the Wellcome Trust

Baroness Manningham-Buller is the first woman to chair the Wellcome Trust’s Board of Governors, and was appointed following an open recruitment process. She was previously a Governor of the Wellcome Trust, and succeeds Sir William Castell as Chair who retired on 30 September 2015.

Between 2002 and 2007, Eliza Manningham-Buller was Director-General of the UK Security Service (MI5), and led the service through significant change. In 2008 she was made a life peer. She sits on the cross benches in the House of Lords where she is a member of the Science and Technology Committee. She is a Lady Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter and a Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath. She gave the BBC Reith Lectures in 2011.

She was Chair of the Council of Imperial College London from 2011 until May this year.

Sir William Castell, outgoing Chair of the Wellcome Trust said: "I am very proud of what the Wellcome Trust has achieved in recent years, from developing National Science Learning Centres to driving innovation and translation of research. I am confident that my successor, Eliza Manningham-Buller, will continue to lead the organisation from strength to strength."

Eliza Manningham-Buller said: "It is a privilege to become Chair of the Wellcome Trust. It is a great philanthropic foundation with considerable achievements behind it and the potential to do even more in future. Bill Castell’s inspiring leadership over a decade has made much of that success possible. I am excited by the prospect of working even more closely with the Trust’s director, Jeremy Farrar, our Board of Governors, the Trust itself, the wider community of those we fund and those who help us, to plan an even more ambitious future for our work."