Andrea Ward appointed as chief financial officer for Diamond Light Source

Effective 3rd July 2024, Andrea Ward has been appointed as Diamond Light Source's first chief financial officer (CFO). In this capacity, Andrea will drive the financial programming at Diamond, allowing for proactive funding negotiations and will also serve as deputy CEO for Gianluigi Botton.

Andrea has served Diamond since 2019, when she joined the business as director or finance and corporate services. From autumn 2021—2023, she took on additional responsibilities, covering the interim CEO responsibilities.

She has brought more than 15 years' experience as a senior finance professional to Diamond Light Source. In a 12-year tenure at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, she worked with the Board to lead finance and procurement functions in Europe, later moving to Canada with the business to assist with acquisition and commercialisation opportunities.

Andrea has also worked at ResMed and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming corporation.

Gianluigi Botton, CEO of Diamond Light Source comments;

"I am pleased to welcome Andrea as CFO, as she has served as a steady and strategic decision-maker for Diamond Light Source for many years. Under her directorate we have worked to secure the funding for Diamond-II and navigate unprecedented times for the business. From changing working policies and procedures due to the pandemic, to international science diplomacy, she has helped propel Diamond's world-changing science ambitions. I am confident this appointment will set us up in the strongest position to deliver on our future scientific and technical ambitions for the UK."

ENDS

For further information: please contact Diamond Communications: Lorna Campbell +44 7836 625999 or Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke +44 1235 778130 Diamond Light Source: www.diamond.ac.uk Twitter: @DiamondLightSou

Diamond Light Source provides industrial and academic user communities with access to state-of-the-art analytical tools to enable world-changing science. Shaped like a huge ring, it works like a giant microscope, accelerating electrons to near light speeds, to produce a light 10 billion times brighter than the Sun, which is then directed off into 33 laboratories known as 'beamlines'. In addition to these, Diamond offers access to several integrated laboratories including the world-class Electron Bio-imaging Centre (eBIC) and the Electron Physical Science Imaging Centre (ePSIC).

Diamond serves as an agent of change, addressing 21st century challenges such as disease, clean energy, food security and more. Since operations started, more than 16,000 researchers from both academia and industry have used Diamond to conduct experiments, with the support of approximately 760 world-class staff. Almost 12,000 scientific articles have been published by our users and scientists.

Funded by the UK Government through the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), and by the Wellcome Trust, Diamond is one of the most advanced scientific facilities in the world, and its pioneering capabilities are helping to keep the UK at the forefront of scientific research.

Diamond was set-up as an independent not for profit company through a joint venture, between the UKRI's Science and Technology Facilities Council and one of the world's largest biomedical charities, the Wellcome Trust—each respectively owning 86% and 14% of the shareholding.

Provided by Diamond Light Source