In Thorrun Govind, English Pharmacy Board gets youngest chair ever

Thorrun Govind was today (22 June) elected as chair of the English Pharmacy Board (EPB), becoming the youngest ever to hold the position since the Royal Pharmaceutical Society shed its regulatory function to become the new professional leadership body in 2010. She is 28 years old.

Govind also becomes the second female chair of colour, after Shilpa Gohil who was elected as EPB chair in 2012.

Giving her reaction to Pharmacy Business immediately after the announcement, a delighted Govind termed it as an honour to serve the membership body and the wider profession. “I’m going to be chairing an inclusive, communicative and strategic board that engages with stakeholders and puts pharmacy at the heart of everything we do,” she added.

She said she will look to connect better with the members and non-members and ensure their views are being listened too, and called on young pharmacists to take up leadership roles.

“I feel that it is important for younger members of the profession to know that age is not a barrier to leadership. We can all show leadership in our own individual way. I firmly believe that we are all ambassadors for the profession,” she said in a tweet.

Asked what her immediate priorities were, Thorrun -- who won the 'Pharmacy Business Young Pharmacist of the Year' award in 2018 -- said she would use her communications and media experience "to connect better with the members and non-members and to ensure that their views are being listened too."

Martin Astbury is elected as vice-chair of the board. Claire Anderson, Sibby Buckle, Tase Oputu and Alisdair Jones will be the EPB’s representatives to the RPS Assembly.

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

Andrew Carruthers has been elected as the chair of the Scottish Pharmacy Board, and Kathleen Cowle will become both vice-chair and the representative to the Assembly.