Leading with James Ashton

Episode 9 - Wellcome Trust and Parkrun

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Episode notes

Sir Jeremy Farrar and Nick Pearson join James Ashton to discuss taking risks, campaigning voices and making a difference in the world’s wellbeing.


Sir Jeremy Farrar is director of the Wellcome Trust, the British medical charity that spends close to £1bn every year to improve global health through research and education funded by a £26bn endowment.


Wellcome has spent 25 years unravelling the human genome and has also been involved in breakthroughs that track the inner workings of the brain, diagnose prostate cancer and tackle ebola outbreaks.


Before joining Wellcome six years ago, Farrar was the director of Oxford University’s Clinical Research Unit in Vietnam where his research interests were infectious diseases and tropical health.


Nick Pearson is chief executive of Parkrun, a sporting movement that began life as a free five-kilometre time trial in south west London 15 years ago. It’s still free but now 300,000 runners of all abilities take part in events across 21 countries every weekend.


Pearson was an elite runner and has 25 years’ experience in the sports industry. He used to run Sweatshop, an independent sports retailer set up by London Marathon co-founder Chris Brasher.

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