The Director of the Wellcome Trust, Dr Jeremy Farrar, will step down from his role in February 2023. Wellcome’s current COO, Paul Schreier, will take over as interim CEO.

Farrar will be taking up the position of Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation after he leaves Wellcome. He held the position of Director of the Wellcome Trust for a decade.

‘Jeremy’s leadership and insight have seen Wellcome achieve remarkable growth, realising ambitions in science and health on a scale not previously possible. His vision has enabled Wellcome’s bold £16 billion strategy for the next decade, supporting scientific discovery and solutions to tackle the greatest health threats facing us all – mental health, escalating infectious disease and the health impacts of the climate crisis,’ said Julia Gillard, Chair of Wellcome.

Wellcome’s Board have been planning the transition for some time, with Farrar’s second five-year term coming to an end, and a global search for a permanent CEO began earlier this year.

Since Farrar joined Wellcome in 2013, the charitable foundation’s annual spending on its mission has almost doubled, rising from £726 million to around £1.6 billion in the next financial year, and its endowment from £15 billion to £38 billion.

Thanks to this growth, in 2020, Wellcome launched a new strategy – funding discovery research projects to transform understanding of life, health and well-being, and supporting science-based solutions to address three of the most urgent health challenges facing us all, infectious disease, mental health problems, and the effects of climate change on health.

Schreier joined Wellcome in 2019 from the business consultancy Hakluyt & Company, where he was CEO. He previously served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and COO of Macquarie University in Australia and senior advisor to the Australian Prime Minister and Cabinet. He will be Wellcome’s interim CEO until a permanent successor is found.