The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 268 No 7193 p509-516
13 April 2002

Society summary

Sixteen seek election to Council as two long-serving members step down

Sixteen candidates are contesting this year's election of seven members to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's Council. But missing from their number are two of the longest-serving Council members, David Allen and Alan Nathan, with 33 years' service between them.

David Allen, currently Treasurer of the Society, is retiring after serving continuously for 18 years. Now aged 53, Mr Allen registered as a pharmacist in 1971 and was first elected to the Council in 1984. He was Vice-President of the Society in 1991–92 and again in 1998–99, and he has been Treasurer for the past two years.

Mr Allen told The Journal that after 18 years on the Council he felt it was time to retire and pursue other interests. He was doing so in the knowledge that in his two years as Treasurer, he has helped put the Society's finances on a sound basis and in good shape to stand up to the rigours of the regulatory issues facing the Society in the near future.

Alan Nathan, now aged 59, registered in 1964. He has a total of 15 years' service on the Society's Council, having served continuously since 1986 apart from a one-year gap.

Mr Nathan told The Journal that he has been finding it increasingly difficult to cope with a full-time job and the heavy commitment of a senior Council member. Retiring from the Council was a difficult choice to make because he had enjoyed it very much, but he could not afford to give up his full-time job. He was retiring, knowing that he had made a contribution to the profession through such projects as the Listening Friends Scheme.

The 16 candidates contesting the seven vacancies include the other five Council members who complete three-year terms of office this year. They are Digby Emson, Christine Glover, Dr Gillian Hawksworth, Pat Hoare and Hemant Patel.

Joining them in the election are Gerald Alexander, Roy Carrington, Dr Shaqil Chaudary, Dr Sarah Cockbill, Robert Darracott, Professor William Dawson, Bob Gartside, Clive Jackson, Peter Schofield, Ashok Soni and Philip Walton.

In the three-yearly election of auditors, nine candidates are contesting the five vacancies. They include all five retiring auditors — John E. Balmford, Ian Caldwell, Richard Clitherow, Mervyn Madge and Dr Brian Wills. The other four candidates are Anthony Cox, Emyr Roberts, J. D. Thomas and Mark Walker.

Biographical details of the candidates in both the Council and auditors' elections appear here as a PDF* (140K). Voting papers and a booklet containing these biographical details and the Council candidates' statements of policy are to be posted to members at the beginning of next week.

  * PDF files on PJ Online require Acrobat Reader 4 or later.