“Olivier Picard has replaced Nick Kaye as chair of the NPA” while Sukhi Basra has taken over as vice chair and Baldev Bange has become treasurer, the body today (April 29) announced.
Basra’s appointment marks the membership body’s “first female vice chair”, she said.
Read more: BREAKING: Olivier Picard named as new NPA chair
“It’s wonderful to be in a leadership position on a board with the highest proportion of female representation in the NPA’s long history,” she added.
Basra, who has owned CliniChem Pharmacy in London’s Victoria for some 25 years, said that she is “a keen advocate for raising the profile of community pharmacy”.
Read more: ‘I saw the King chatting to Lionel Richie’: Nick Kaye’s last month as NPA chair
She stressed that the “humble profession…is frequently overlooked” – “we are clinicians and specialists in the use of medicines, not shop keepers,” she added.
Both Basra and returning board member Mike Hewitson “will serve two years as NPA nominees to Community Pharmacy England (CPE)”, which will come into effect from CPE’s next meeting in June, the NPA said.
“We care”
Meanwhile Picard, who owns and operates four pharmacies in the home counties and has served as the association’s vice chair for the past two years, will take over as chair from Kaye whose “fixed term in office formally [comes] to an end at an NPA board meeting this week”, the NPA said.
“It’s an honour to take over as chair from my brilliant predecessor…who has worked so energetically on behalf of NPA members and will undoubtedly continue to do so,” Picard said.
“His are big shoes to fill, but I will wear them with pride – I’ll keep the interests of NPA members at the heart of everything I do,” he added.
Read more: Who is the NPA’s new chief executive Henry Gregg?
“I will keep asking, ‘why are we here and how can we make things better together’,” Picard said.
“For me the answer to that question is because we care, because we can see a system that can be better,” he added.
Alongside Picard, Basra, Bange and Hewitson, Dave Thomas from Cardiff and Joanne Wolfe representing NPA members in Northern Ireland have also joined the board “for the period April 2025 to March 2027” alongside existing members, the NPA said.
Read more: Exclusive: NPA’s Nick Kaye - ‘We are suspending collective action and looking to the future’
It added that Raj Aggarwal, Dr Ian Cubbin, Michael Guerin, Andrew Lane and Raj Patel are stepping down from the board after serving their maximum permissible term.
Reflecting on his last month as NPA chair in an exclusive interview with C+D last month, Kaye said that the organisation’s growth “has been amazing”.
He added that he will remain on the board for another two years and will take up a position at the NPA’s insurance arm (NPA I).
