Former head of Perry Capital London office joins Wellcome Trust Investments Division
Emma Davies, formerly the Chief Investment Officer at Big Society Capital, has this month joined the Wellcome Trust as an investment manager. She has taken on responsibility for part of the Trust’s directly managed equity portfolio and will play an important part in its foreign exchange and derivatives overlays.
Emma previously ran the London office of Perry Capital, one of the world's leading hedge funds, before helping to set up Big Society Capital.
Chief Investments Officer Danny Truell said: "Emma is a welcome addition to our Investment team. Her appointment continues our policy of attracting the brightest and best talent from diverse backgrounds to manage our large and varied portfolio, enabling the Wellcome Trust to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health."
Emma adds: "I am thrilled to be joining the investment team at the Wellcome Trust, a unique organisation with a reputation for excellence both in the research it funds worldwide and in how it manages its large asset base. I look forward to using my public and private markets experience to the benefit of the team and the Trust."
The Wellcome Trust has more than 25 years' experience of owning a highly diversified financial investment portfolio. The investment base was valued at £14.5 billion at 30 September 2012. Since the portfolio's inception in 1985, it has delivered a 3133 per cent return.
From 1 October 1985 (when it took on its modern form) to the end of September 2012, the Trust had spent more than £10 billion. It now spends around £650 million each year to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health and expects to spend £3.5 billion over the next five years.
Nick Moakes, Head of Public Markets at the Wellcome Trust, says: "I am delighted that we have been able to attract someone of Emma's quality and experience to join the team.As we expand the scope of our directly managed public assets, we are committed to ensuring that we have the right resources to manage them properly in a challenging but fascinating investment environment."
About the Wellcome Trust
The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. It supports the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. The Trust's breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. It is independent of both political and commercial interests.
The Wellcome Trust was established in 1936 in the will of Sir Henry Wellcome, a pharmaceutical pioneer, progressive industrialist, philanthropist and archaeologist. The Trustees began work in 1937 with £73 048 in the deposit account.
Between 1936 and 1986, the Wellcome Trust was the sole owner of the Wellcome Foundation, Henry Wellcome's drug company. In 1986, however, the Trust began floating shares in the Wellcome Foundation and used the proceeds to diversify its assets. This has helped the Trust grow to become one of the world's largest charitable foundations, with assets of £14.5 billion (September 2012).
The Trust made its first awards in 1938 to Otto Loewi, who had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1936 for his discovery of acetylcholine and its physiological actions, and to Henry Foy and Athena Kondi for their work tackling malaria at the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories in Thessaloniki, Greece. However, it was not until the mid-1980s that its spending became significant, thanks to its share floatation.
From 1 October 1985 until the end of September 2012, the Trust spent £10.1 billion. It now spends around £650 million each year to achieve extraordinary improvements in human and animal health and expects to spend £3.5 billion over the next five years.