Zurich Insurance Company is the Forum’s founding sponsor, providing funds to take it from concept to fully operational status. Zurich is an insurance-based financial services provider, with headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. The core of its business is general insurance and life insurance. Founded in 1872, it has a global network of subsidiaries and offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and other markets. Its 55,000 employees serve customers in more than 120 countries.
Zurich was the first insurer in Switzerland to offer global insurance programmes and in 1912, became the first European insurer in the USA. Over the years, Zurich has spread its reach throughout the globe. It aspires to be the leading global insurance group in the general insurance and life insurance markets.
Zurich wrote US$49.3 billion in gross premiums and policy fees worldwide in 2004. It also managed US$191.1 billion of group investments in 2004.
Barclays Bank PLC is lead sponsor of the Forum. Barclays is a financial services organisation that moves, lends, invests, and protects money for more than 27 million customers and clients around the world — from large businesses to personal account holders. Approximately 50% of Barclays’ profit now comes from outside the UK.
Barclays’ mission is to provide products and services that help customers reach their financial goals, that drive economic growth, and that sustain healthy financial systems.
Barclays has 123,000 employees worldwide, and its tradition of innovative thinking, developed over the past 300 years, has made the past few years especially successful for the company.
The Wellcome Trust sponsors a series of Wellcome Trust Review Articles in the Emerging Health Threats Journal.
Established in 1936 and with an endowment of around £13 billion, the Wellcome Trust is an independent charity funding research to improve human and animal health. It is the world’s second largest non-governmental source of funds for biomedical research. As a privately endowed charity, the Wellcome Trust is independent from governments, from industry and from donors. Its mission reflects the wishes of its founder, Sir Henry Wellcome, as laid out in his will and now enshrined in the Trust’s constitution.
The Wellcome Trust’s broadly defined mission allows it to respond flexibly to medical needs and scientific opportunities. As well as tackling immediate priorities, its independence and long-term perspective enables it to support research that will benefit future generations.
JC Bamford Excavators Ltd (JCB), with its long-established philanthropic interest in disaster relief, is a lead sponsor of the Forum.
Joseph Cyril Bamford launched the construction and agricultural equipment company that bears his initials in 1945. Today the company is the world's third largest manufacturer of heavy equipment, and has manufacturing bases in the UK, US, Brazil, Germany, India, and China. JCB employs over 8000 people, has operations in 150 countries, and is committed to social responsibility — in particular, by sending JCB machines to help after natural disasters worldwide.
Following the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in December 2004, JCB donated over £1 million of equipment to help the recovery and clear-up operations in the Tamil Nadu region of India, on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in Indonesia, and in Sri Lanka.
When the Asian earthquake struck in October 2005, JCB donated more than £500,000 worth of machines to help in the devastated mountain regions of Pakistan and India. JCB machines were also involved in the massive relief efforts following the Turkish earthquake disaster, which destroyed 60,000 homes, and the Mexican flood disaster in 2005.
The Health Protection Agency is a founding sponsor of the Forum. The HPA’s role is to provide an integrated approach to protecting UK public health through the provision of support and advice to the NHS, local authorities, emergency services, the Department of Health, and the devolved administrations. The Agency was established as a special health authority (SpHA) in 2003.
On 1 April 2005, the Agency was established as a non-departmental public body, replacing the HPA SpHA and the National Radiological Protection Board, and with radiation protection as part of health protection incorporated in its remit.
The HPA has a network of approximately 3000 staff based at three major centres, and regionally and locally throughout England. There is a small central office based in London. The Agency works closely with locally based colleagues employed within the devolved administrations.
The Centre for Infections at Colindale is the base for communicable disease surveillance and specialist microbiology. The Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards is based at Chilton, and the Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response, focusing on applied microbiological research and emergency response, is based at Porton.
