MRC's new Chief Executive takes the helm
28th September 2007
Sir Leszek Borysiewicz is the new Chief Executive of the MRC. John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills announced the appointment on Friday 29 September.
Sir Leszek spoke of his excitement about leading the MRC at a time of change and opportunity:
“I’m excited by the chance to work across the whole spectrum of biomedical science and to help to make a difference in relation to healthcare for individuals in the UK and globally.”
Former deputy rector of Imperial College London, Sir Leszek has a background in immunology, infectious diseases and vaccine development. He was born and schooled in Wales and studied medicine at the Welsh National School of Medicine. He then began a distinguished clinical academic career, with positions at hospitals in London, Cambridge, The Gambia and Wales. He became head of the faculty of medicine at Imperial College London in 2001 and deputy rector in 2004.
Sir Leszek’s appointment comes in the wake of Sir David Cooksey’s recommendation last year of a single strategy for health research in the UK and the formation of an Office for the Strategic Coordination of Health Research (OSCHR) to oversee this strategy.
Commenting on the new funding arrangements, he said: “This is a golden opportunity. What the Cooksey report has done is to open the door on a plethora of opportunity that exists. It’s not just an opportunity on the translation side, people forget that Sir David’s review also very firmly identified the need to maintain the basic research agenda as the seed corn from which all future proposals are going to flourish.”
“We have a lot of work to do with the Department of Health’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to build up the applicability of discovery into changes both in clinical practice and in drugs or other health interventions.”
Sir Leszek has had a long association with the MRC. Early in his career he completed an MRC Clinical Training Fellowship, and between 1995 and 2000 he chaired the MRC Molecular and Cellular Medicine Board and served on the MRC Council. He has also been a governor of the Wellcome Trust and a trustee of Cancer Research UK, and served on numerous committees, including for the MRC, the World Health Organization, the British Council, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration and the UK Stem Cell Foundation.
