Breaking news reached the international wellness community this week: the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) and the Global Wellness Institute (GWI) – the organizations that have shaped, measured, and championed the global wellness economy for nearly two decades – have been acquired by Informa, the London-headquartered international events, digital services, and academic research group.
The announcement came directly from Susie Ellis, Chair & CEO of the Global Wellness Summit and the driving force behind both organizations since their inception. “Building and leading the Global Wellness Summit and the Global Wellness Institute has been my passion project for so many years,” Ellis shared in a letter to the global wellness community. “Yet, it was inevitable that I would need to create a succession plan – and that time has come.”
Who is Informa?
Informa is a publicly traded powerhouse with offices in more than 30 countries, and a major player in the medical, longevity, and aesthetics arenas. As the company builds out a complete health ‘ecosystem’, adding wellness to its portfolio was a natural next step – a recognition of the sheer size and impact of the wellness economy that GWI’s own research has done so much to quantify.
The timing feels especially apt. As Ellis noted, medicine and wellness are moving ever closer together, with prevention, longevity, and whole-person health increasingly part of the same conversation. For the spa and wellness industry – here in the Mexican Caribbean and around the world – that convergence is already reshaping what guests expect and what our businesses can offer.
What remains, what will change?
Crucially, the Global Wellness brands, vision, and team all remain in place. What changes is the scale: Informa brings infrastructure, reach, and never-before-combined assets and audiences that promise new opportunities for delegates, sponsors, partners, and the wider wellness community.
The transition also marks a changing of the guard. Nancy Davis – for many years the creative architect and director of the organizations and their events – will lead The Global Wellness Group within Informa’s Medical Division starting January 1, 2027. That is when Ellis will step away to spend more time with her husband, Peter, and her family.
As Davis put it: if GWS has helped lead the evolution of wellness for the last 20 years, now, together with Informa, there is an extraordinary opportunity to lead what comes next – with events, education, and research on a whole new scale.
A milestone Summit in Phuket
The news adds extra significance to this year’s 20th anniversary Global Wellness Summit, taking place November 10-13 in Phuket, Thailand. Delegates will have the chance to meet Informa’s leaders, hear more about the road ahead, and celebrate two decades of an industry – and a movement – that Susie Ellis helped build from the ground up.
From all of us at Spa & Wellness MexiCaribe: congratulations to Susie, Nancy, and the entire Global Wellness team. Here’s to the next chapter – brighter, bigger, and bolder.
www.globalwellnessinstitute.org / www.globalwellnesssummit.com / www.informa.com
By Sara Jones, Editor
