The Wellcome Trust, the UK health research charity, has been criticised for paying its investment executives more than £11m last year, more than 10 times as much as its own governors.
The pay packets, which included £5m for Wellcome’s chief investment officer, Nick Moakes, were awarded after its investment portfolio rose in value, generating more funds for its mission of tackling health inequalities.
Wellcome’s investment portfolio returned 5.2% in the year to 30 September, or 3.5% after inflation, and is now valued at £37.6bn, up from £36.8bn the year before.
Moakes, who is stepping down in March, is among the highest-paid charity workers in the UK. Much of his pay packet is made up of long-term bonuses that depend on the portfolio’s future performance.
The senior investment team’s total pay packet rose to £11.1m last year, shared between 44 staff, up from £9.5m the year before. This dwarfed its governors’ remuneration of £803,665, which included £142,108 to Julia Gillard, the former prime minister of Australia, who chairs the board of governors.
Andrew Speke of the High Pay Centre, the UK thinktank, said there was a “huge gap” in pay between Wellcome’s investment staff and its lowest-paid workers, which was hard to justify.
“Those leading major nonprofit organisations deserve to be paid well, as like with their counterparts in the private or public sector, these roles come with great responsibility.”
“That said, a figure of £5m is likely to be more than 100 if not 200 times the pay of Wellcome’s lowest-paid workers, and it’s difficult to see how such a huge gap in pay can be morally justified or necessary in order to attract competent leaders,” Speke said.
Wellcome said much of the pay would be deferred, depending on the future performance of its investment portfolio.
“Having an in-house investment team rather than outsourcing to external investment managers saves us hundreds of millions a year which we can spend on science to solve urgent health challenges,” Wellcome said.
Moakes said: “Wellcome is in an excellent financial position to fund the vital work of our mission. Returns are at all-time highs, and we have ample liquidity to take advantage of any opportunities market volatility might produce.”
Moakes will be replaced by two of the existing team who will become co-chief investment officers, Lisha Patel and Fabian Thehos.
Wellcome’s charitable spending fell slightly to £1.6bn last year from £1.7bn the previous year, but remained in line with its plan to pay out £16bn over the decade to 2032.
Wellcome has backed the world’s first-ever vaccine against chikungunya, a debilitating mosquito-borne viral disease, which gained approval in Europe last May and in the US in late 2023, supporting it through the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, co-founded by Wellcome and partners in 2017.
“This year, impacts from Wellcome’s work include a new treatment for schizophrenia, the first ever vaccine for the infectious disease chikungunya, and our new funding scheme for researchers from under-represented backgrounds in UK research to progress their careers,” Gillard said.
Wellcome also funded the early trials of Cobenfy, the first new drug for schizophrenia in 50 years.
The charity was established in 1936 with funding from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome, founder of Burroughs Wellcome, one of the predecessors of drugmaker GSK, to fund research to improve health.
