Global Wellness Summit Gets Acquired by Informa, CEO to Depart

The two-decade-old summit and its nonprofit research arm will become part of Informa, an events and academic group, with founder Susie Ellis departing early next year

The Global Wellness Summit and its nonprofit research arm, the Global Wellness Institute, have been acquired by Informa, a London-based events and academic research group, in a deal that hands two of the most influential entities in wellness to a publicly traded company building out a health and longevity portfolio.

Informa has an international reach, with 14,000 employees across 30 countries. It runs hundreds of large trade shows and professional conferences worldwide, alongside academic publishing and specialist data services.

The announcement came in an email Tuesday morning penned by Global Wellness Summit co-founder, chair and CEO Susie Ellis, who wrote that she’d always known she’d eventually need to create a succession plan and that the time had come. 

Ellis is handing leadership to Nancy Davis, the group’s chief creative officer and executive director. Ellis will step away when the transition takes effect Jan. 1, 2027, to spend more time with her family, while Davis will run a newly named Global Wellness Group inside Informa’s Medical Division.

“The timing of this acquisition could not be better,” Ellis wrote. “Medicine and wellness are moving closer together as prevention, longevity and whole-person health increasingly become part of the same conversation.”

The deal, which leaves the Global Wellness brands intact along with the entire team, will add new resources and reach, creating unprecedented opportunities for the team, delegates, sponsors and partners, she continued.

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. It comes ahead of the group’s 20th-anniversary Summit, set for Phuket, Thailand, in November.