The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced on Thursday that Joe Cerrell, who currently leads the foundation’s global health policy and advocacy group, will head a new Gates Foundation office in London beginning in January 2010, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cerrell will “oversee the organization’s first European outpost, which by next year will have around 10 staff members, according to Geoffrey Lamb, managing director for public policy at the Gates Foundation,” the newspaper writes, adding that the move is part of the foundation’s effort “to build closer ties to European governments and global aid organizations” (Guth, 8/14).

Foundation co-chair Bill Gates said in a written statement, “Expanding our work in Europe is an important priority for the foundation, and we’re very pleased that Joe will be leading this effort,” Agence France-Presse reports. Jeff Raikes, the foundation’s chief executive, said their European partners – which include Groupe Agence Francaise de Developpement in France, the Department for International Development in Britain, and GTZ in Germany – “are some of the most innovative and bold influencers working to alleviate extreme poverty and disease in the developing world” (8/13).

According to a Gates Foundation press release, Cerrell’s “team will expand the foundation’s partnerships with European non-governmental organizations, foundations, governments, multilateral organizations, and other groups, and manage a portfolio of policy and advocacy grants” (8/13).