Thorrun Govind has been elected chair of the English pharmacy board, Cheryl Way chair of the Welsh pharmacy board and Andrew Carruthers chair of the Scottish pharmacy board, following a round of voting in today's (June 22) RPS meetings.

Each of the new positions will take effect immediately, the RPS said.

Ms Govind is the youngest person to be elected to the RPS’s English board, having served on it since 2018. She was re-elected to the board in May this year.

She replaces Claire Anderson as chair, who was also re-elected to the board last month and will serve as one of the board’s representatives to the RPS assembly, alongside Sibby Buckle, Tase Oputu and Alisdair Jones.

Martin Astbury will stay as the English board’s vice-chair.

An avid Twitter user, Ms Govind has been a vocal proponent of the profession both on social media and in the wider press, appearing on the BBC’s Newsnight and Victoria Derbyshire shows. She recently gave C+D readers advice on making better use of social media, and has been outspoken about the treatment of pharmacy students sitting exams during the pandemic.

Ms Govind is also a trainee lawyer and has served on the Lancashire local pharmaceutical committee.

Results in Wales

For the Welsh pharmacy board, Ruth Mitchell has been elected as both vice-chair and the representative to the assembly. Seconded on to the board in the hospital pharmacy position is Geraldine McCaffrey.

Newly elected Welsh board chair Ms Way has been a registered pharmacist since 1980, and Cardiff branch chair of the National Association of Women Pharmacists since 2007. She was elected as vice-chair of the Welsh pharmacy board in 2019.

Ms Way, who lives in Penarth, has also served as the principal pharmacist for two Welsh hospitals and was the Welsh representative on the Hospital Pharmacists’ Group Committee of the RPS from 1997-2000.

Results in Scotland

As of today, Kathleen Cowle becomes both vice-chair and the representative to the assembly on the Scottish pharmacy board.

Scottish pharmacy board chair Mr Carruthers has previously served as the local coordinator for the RPS in the Glasgow and Clyde region, while working as a senior pharmacist for NHS Glasgow and Clyde.