After fifteen years of dedicated service, John Murphy, the Director of the PDA, retired from his position at the end of 2016. John was integral to the formation and then the launch of the PDA. He was the General Manager when the PDA launched in 2003 and became Director in 2008.
John Murphy
From a standing start in 2003, with three members of staff and 300 member enquiries in the first-year, John has presided over a period of constant growth, to the point where we provide support to members in over 5,000 incidents per annum.
During that time, internal staff numbers have grown to more than 25, an independent trade union has been established and membership numbers have grown to more than 26,000 in 2016, representing around half of all practicing pharmacists in the UK.
By any measure, John’s contribution to the success of the PDA can only be described as outstanding. He has always stated that although he did not join the PDA until he’d already enjoyed a long and successful career in corporate pharmacy, it was only upon his arrival at the PDA that he felt he had truly found his real pharmacy vocation.
He felt that his entire previous career had merely been a warm up exercise for what he considered to be the real purpose of becoming a pharmacist, which was to help fellow professionals in need of support. His personal motivation in this regard just happened to be synonymous with the primary objectives of the PDA.
Always a calm source of wise advice and never afraid to take on large and powerful organisations on a day to day basis, John Murphy’s dedication to the PDA, his humour and sharp wit will be missed by all of us in the office.
The good news is that his expertise will not be completely lost, as John has agreed to remain as a senior advisor to the PDA and to continue as General Secretary of the PDA Union going forward.
Following John’s retirement and reflecting a major restructuring of the organisation, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Tom Kirkbride as the PDA’s Chief Operating Officer (COO).
Tom Kirkbride
Tom brings to the PDA a wealth of senior experience from significant membership organisations, such as The Law Society, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and more recently The Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Tom’s background and experience in member-based customer service improvement and operations management will greatly strengthen the PDA’s ability to offer a first-class service to members. The appointment of a COO reaffirms our commitment to improve the service we provide and to plan for the future ensuring that the PDA continually improves its ability to support members into the coming decades.
We are confident that all members of the PDA and of the pharmacy profession will join us in thanking John for his important contribution towards the development of their Defence Association, as well as in welcoming Tom to the PDA and wish him every success in his leadership and development of the organisation.