As most of you know, building and leading the Global Wellness Summit and the Global Wellness Institute has been my passion project for so many years. Yet, it was inevitable that I would need to create a succession plan—and that time has come.
I have some very important—and exciting—news:
It gives me immense pleasure to let you—our deeply valued global wellness community—know first that we’ve been acquired by Informa, a leading international events, digital services and academic research group. Headquartered in London, Informa is a publicly traded company with offices in more than 30 countries around the world.
Informa is a powerhouse in the medical, longevity and aesthetics arenas. As they build out a complete health “ecosystem,” they’ve been looking to add wellness to their portfolio—recognizing the incredible size and impact of the wellness economy.
This is the inflection point we’ve all known was coming after years of dedication from our delegates and sponsors. Everyone we’ve had advanced discussions with is thrilled that our community now has a far bigger infrastructure and reach to grow our partner businesses, our knowledge and research, and to impact consumers. It’s quite incredible.
Importantly, the Global Wellness brands (and vision and soul) remain, and our entire team stays on. Nothing changes about what has made our work so special, but Informa gives us the resources and global platform to grow our organization—and yours—in ways we’ve envisioned for years.
When Informa reviewed the landscape, they came to see the GWS and the GWI as the gold standard. They realized that we were the most trusted global brands, with extraordinary communities, and that through our research, trends, events, and more, we’ve helped shape the wellness industry for nearly two decades.
The timing of this acquisition could not be better. Medicine and wellness are moving closer together as prevention, longevity and whole-person health increasingly become part of the same conversation. These new resources and reach will create unprecedented opportunities for our team, delegates, sponsors and partners—and for the entire wellness community.
I honestly couldn’t be more excited about the future and what will now be possible. Not only because Informa’s values, vision and ambitions are so perfectly aligned with our own, but because I’m passing the leadership baton to Nancy Davis, who has been the brilliant, creative architect and director of our organizations and events for many years. She has a vision for the future and the runway now to deliver on that vision.
Nancy will lead The Global Wellness Group within Informa’s Medical Division starting January 1, 2027. That’s when I’ll step away to spend more time with my husband, Peter, and my family.
As Nancy put it to me, if GWS has helped lead the evolution of wellness for the last 20 years, now, together with Informa, we have an extraordinary opportunity to lead what comes next—with events, education and research on a whole new scale.
I knew our 20th anniversary Summit in Phuket, Thailand, this November 10-13 would be an exciting milestone and celebration. But now there’s a whole new reality, and I’m even more excited to be there.
As Informa brings never-before-combined assets and audiences to our industry, it’s a new era for our delegates and sponsors to grow their businesses. We hope you’ll join me for four days of immersion into the future of wellness—and to meet Informa’s leaders and learn about the powerful future opportunities.
I’m filled with so many emotions, all positive: honored to have helped build these organizations and filled with complete confidence about the future. But mostly, I’m grateful to you, our global wellness family. Each of you has helped create this wellness movement right alongside me. If it’s hard to grasp the growth in wellness these last 20 years, the future is only going to be brighter, bigger and bolder.
With deepest thanks,
