Appendix 1
Letter from the Rt Hon John Denham MP, Secretary
of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills to Mr Phil Willis
MP, Chairman of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills
Committee.
I am writing to inform you that I have identified
Professor Sir Tom Blundell as the Government's candidate to be
the new Chair of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (BBSRC) and Dr Alan Gillespie CBE as the Government's
candidate to be the new Chair of the Economic and Social Research
Council and to invite the Innovation, Universities, Science and
Skills (IUSS) Select Committee, if it wishes, to hold pre-appointment
hearings in line with the new procedure agreed in the Government's
Response to the Liaison Committee's First Report of Session 2007-08,
HC 594.
Professor Blundell has had a distinguished career
in the biosciences including having been Professor of Biochemistry
and Chair of the School of Biological Sciences at Cambridge. The
present Chair, Dr Peter Ringrose, retires at the end of April.
Dr Gillespie has had a distinguished career in financial
services. He was a partner and Managing Director with Goldman
Sachs and Chairman of Ulster Bank Group. He was Chair of the Commonwealth
Development Corporation and Northern Ireland Development Board.
The former Chair Lord Turner of Ecchinswell retired last September.
To inform the Committee's decision on whether on
not to hold a hearing and in anticipation of the Committee wishing
to do so I annex details of the legal basis of the appointments
and the recruitment process (Annex A), and attach the two information
packs for candidates which includes a job description and person
specification and terms and conditions (Annex B) and a CV for
each candidate (Annex C).
April 2009
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