Britain's biggest charity paid one of its bosses more than £3 MILLION last year

• Danny Truell is the chief investment officer of the Wellcome Trust 
• Its report revealed a member of the investment team was paid around £3 million
• During the past year, the organisation has also donated more than £1 billion 
• Behind its funding came a vaccine for Ebola and a host of other breakthroughs

Britain's biggest charity paid one of its bosses more than £3 million last year, a new report reveals.

Danny Truell, chief investment officer of the Wellcome Trust, helped to grow the organisation by 18 per cent last year. 

And in its annual report, the world's second highest-spending charitable foundation revealed one of its investment team earned the significant amount.

It is believed his package was considerably higher than usual due to bonuses on the back of his performance, The Times reports. 

The report revealed that last year he earned an amount much less, at around £1.94 million. 

Two other members of the same department were paid more than £1.7 million this year, but who they were is unclear.  

During the past year, the Wellcome Trust also donated more than £1 billion to a host of scientific research projects. 

Behind its funding, which comes entirely through investments, came a vaccine for Ebola and a potential cure for three tropical diseases.

While its donations also helped scientists discover how to make embryos survive in a laboratory setting for two weeks.  

They have recently bankrolled trials for a new method of controlling the Zika virus and projects on the link between the immune system and cancer.

And more money has been pledged to try and find an effective treatment for malaria and alternatives to chemotherapy.

Experts say the Wellcome Trust is on track to invest at least £5 billion into medical research over the next five years.

This is after it betted against the pound ahead of the Brexit vote, scrapping a rule to hold at least a quarter of its assets in sterling.  

A spokesperson for the Wellcome Trust said: 'The investment team are remunerated in line with normal practice in the asset management sector.

'Their base salaries are supported by significant variable elements which are based directly on the performance of the portfolio – either in the form of annual bonus, or, more significantly, long term incentive plans. 

'This decision has been taken on the basis that, due to the size, breadth and long term nature of its portfolio, Wellcome can attract and retain a highly skilled group of investment professionals. 

'With the right leadership and approach, this group can generate superior returns and incur lower costs than would be the case if this activity were outsourced to a traditional asset management organisation.'

Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, said: 'Wellcome’s decision to manage much of our endowment ourselves has achieved exceptional returns over many years while saving hundreds of millions of pounds in investment management fees. 

'By paying our outstanding investment team in a way that is competitive for the sector and linked to portfolio performance, Wellcome gets better returns and has more to spend on our charitable mission of improving health.'