William Castell

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Sir William Castell LVO (born 10 April 1947) is Chairman of the Wellcome Trust and a Director of General Electric and BP. He was CEO of Amersham plc from 1989 until it was acquired by GE in April 2004 and then became CEO of GE Healthcare and a Vice-Chairman of GE.

He was born on 10 April 1947 and educated at St. Dunstan's College and the City of London College (now City University) where he earned a BA. He qualified as an accountant with Spicer and Pegler (1971-75) and then joined Wellcome plc as Financial Controller, Europe (1976-79) rising to MD Wellcome Biotech (1982-84) and Commercial Director (1984-89).

He was a non-executive Director of The General Electric Company (UK) which became Marconi plc 1997-2002, and was appointed a Non-Executive Director of BP in 2006.

He joined the Board of Governors of the Wellcome Trust as Chairman-designate on 1 January 2006, succeeding Sir Dominic Cadbury as Chairman in May 2006. Prior to joining Amersham, he held various positions with the Wellcome pharmaceutical company, which was then owned by the Wellcome Trust.

Alongside his business career he has been involved for many years in not-for-profit activities, including being a council member of the Medical Research Council (2001-2004) and Chairman of the Prince's Trust (1998-2003). He is currently a trustee of the Natural History Museum, a board member of the University of Michigan's Institute of Life sciences, a Visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford University, and an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.