NEWS RELEASE
Date: 26 August 2008
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New Chief Executive appointed at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency
Professor Peter Borriello has been appointed Chief Executive of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency (VLA). He will take up this position on 1 October 2008 following the retirement of Professor Steve Edwards at the end of September.
Peter, currently Director of the Health Protection Agency’s Centre for Infections at Colindale, London, said:
“I am very much looking forward to joining VLA and working with my new colleagues and customers to deliver the Agency’s high quality services.
“VLA is recognised worldwide for its scientific excellence and it is an honour to have the opportunity of leading such an organisation over the coming years.”
VLA is one of Defra’s key delivery agents for veterinary research, surveillance, and consultancy, and has played a major supporting role in countering a number of recent animal disease emergencies. The Agency is also recognised internationally as a reference laboratory for many farm animal diseases and maintains close international links with research institutes, universities and commercial companies.
Like many organisations operating in the animal health market, VLA faces a number of challenges in the coming years. Peter will bring with him a wealth of experience from the public health arena to help address these challenges.
Notes to editors
Biographical note
1. Peter Borriello is an Executive Director of the Health Protection Agency (HPA). His current post is Director of the new HPA Centre for Infections, which brings together the Reference Microbiology Division and the Communicable Diseases Surveillance Centre.
2. Peter is a microbiology graduate and Fellow of University College London. His career history includes Head of a Medical Research Council Unit working on the pathogenicity of bacterial infections and founding Director of the Institute of Infections and Immunity, University of Nottingham. He was appointed Director of the PHLS Central Public Health Laboratory, which was the National Centre for Reference Microbiology, in October 1995.
3. He holds three chairs as Special Professor of the University of Nottingham, Visiting Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Professor of Microbial Ecology at the Free University of Herborn.
Veterinary Laboratories Agency
4. VLA is an Executive Agency of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). It is a regional network of 16 veterinary laboratories including a central facility near Weybridge in Surrey.
5. VLA provides a wide range of applied research and consultancy on livestock diseases and surveillance of new and emerging diseases for the Government and animal health industry. It is also a national and international reference laboratory for many farm animal diseases including avian influenza, bovine tuberculosis, classical swine fever and TSEs.
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Page published: 26 August 2008