Dear Colleague

Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable has just announced the appointment of Professor John Womersley as the next Chief Executive Officer of STFC. John’s four-year term will commence on 1 November 2011. John’s appointment followed a competitive selection and Ministerial approval process. Many of you will be familiar with John from his role as Director Science Programmes at STFC. We will link from our stfc.ac.uk website to the official announcement as soon as possible.

From 1 November, I will be on secondment to the UK Space Agency until 31 March 2012 to advise on steps needed to leverage the research base to maximise the economic growth of the space sector.

I will be working closely with John over coming weeks during the handover period. As a first step, we have agreed that Dr Janet Seed will take over John’s duties as acting Director of Science Programmes to ensure he is able to fully concentrate on preparing for this very significant and important role. Other transitional arrangements will be announced as soon as possible.

Warm regards
Keith Mason
STFC CEO