The UK voluntary sector’s highest-paid person received an increase in his pay package worth half a million pounds last year, latest figures show. 

Nick Moakes, chief investment officer at the grantmaker Wellcome, topped Third Sector’s annual pay study with a salary package worth almost £4.5m in the year to the end of September 2023. 

The charity’s latest accounts, for 2023/24, show the charity’s highest-paid person, which Wellcome confirmed was Moakes, was paid £5,060,000-£5,069,999 in the year to the end of September 2024. 

It is understood that some of the salary package will be deferred, depending on the future performance of the charity’s investment portfolio. 

The accounts also show the charity paid interim chief executive Paul Schreier, who joined Wellcome in February 2023 and left in January 2024, £885,932 in the year to the end of September 2024, including pay in lieu of notice. 

Schreier received £352,260 in the year to the end of September 2023, according to Wellcome’s accounts. 

The latest figures show that John-Arne Røttingen, who took over from Schreier as the charity’s permanent chief executive in January 2024, was paid £654,555 in the year to the end of September. 

Moakes, who will retire at the end of March, has helped the charity’s investment portfolio more than double during his time in its investment team, from £15.1bn when he joined in 2007 to £37.6bn in 2023/24.

Wellcome has consistently said that employing an in-house investment team to manage its huge portfolio saves the charity vast sums compared with the cost of contracting the work out. 

“Remuneration throughout Wellcome is benchmarked to the wider market for each role,” a spokesperson said. 

“Having an in-house investment team rather than outsourcing to external investment managers saves us hundreds of millions a year, which we can spend on science to solve urgent health challenges.”

Lisha Patel and Fabian Thehos will lead the investment team as managing partners and co-chief investment officers from 1 April.

“The succession plan for our investment team has been carefully planned, market tested, and is now well underway,” said Moakes.

“It has been an honour and a privilege to lead this team, and I am confident that I will leave it in highly capable hands when I step down in March.”