Boots has appointed former head of healthcare HR Marc Donovan in the new role of chief pharmacist, which will include superintendent pharmacist responsibilities.

Mr Donovan would retain his previous duties for healthcare HR and combine them with the superintendent pharmacist role held by Steve Banks since January 2013, Boots told C+D yesterday (June 9). 

Mr Banks would leave the company in the early summer after 31 years "to pursue a new work-life balance", he said. "We thank him for the valuable contribution he has made in this and previous roles during his career with company,” it said when it announced the changes last week (June 5).

Boots told C+D that Mr Donovan's position would involve him overseeing the "professional development" of the company as well as "working with the executive to advise on governance and strategic development".

This new role would ensure Boots had the “highest standard of clinical governance” and maintained the “right balance” with its commercial objectives at a time when pharmacy was becoming “an even stronger partner to the NHS”, it added.

Mr Donovan was previously vice-chair of Community Pharmacy Wales and a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Welsh Pharmacy Board.

Boots’ announcement of the new position came three days before the company revealed it would cull around 700 non-pharmacy jobs within the next three years.

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