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Sir William Martin CastellLVO FMedSci (born 10 April 1947) is a British businessman who was chairman of theWellcome Trust, a director ofGeneral Electric and a former director ofBP. He was CEO ofAmersham plc from 1989 until it was acquired byGE in April 2004 and then became CEO ofGE Healthcare and a vice-chairman of GE.
Castell was educated atSt. Dunstan's College andCass Business School, where he earned a BA. He qualified as anaccountant with Spicer and Pegler (1971–75) and then joined Wellcome plc as financial controller of Europe (1976–79), rising to MD Wellcome Biotech (1982–84) and commercial director (1984–89).
He was a non-executive director of The General Electric Company (UK) which becameMarconi plc 1997–2002, and was appointed a non-executive director ofBP in 2006, until April 2012.
He joined the board of governors of theWellcome Trust as chairman-designate on 1 January 2006, succeedingSir Dominic Cadbury as chairman in May 2006. Prior to joining Amersham, he held various positions with the Wellcome pharmaceutical company, which was then owned by the Wellcome Trust.
Alongside his business career he has been involved for many years in not-for-profit activities, including being a council member of theMedical Research Council (2001–2004) and chairman of thePrince's Trust (1998–2003). He is a former trustee of theNatural History Museum, a board member of theUniversity of Michigan's Institute of Life sciences, a board member of theNational Bureau of Asian Research, a visiting fellow atGreen College,Oxford University, and an Honorary Fellow of theAcademy of Medical Sciences.
