RPS chief to step down once transition to royal college is complete in April 2026

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) has announced that its transition to become the Royal College of Pharmacy will be complete by mid-April 2026, at which point its chief executive Paul Bennett will step down.

Following this, deputy chief executive Karen Baxter will become interim chief executive of the royal college and take the leadership body forward, including implementing a new strategy and executive team.

The leadership announcement comes as the RPS begins engagement with members and pharmacy professionals to inform their royal college strategy. This is an ongoing collaboration between the Privy Council, Charity Commission, and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

Today the RPS confirmed it will be recruiting for several key leadership roles, including a chair of trustees for the new charity Trustee Board:

• Director of finance and technology
• Director of pharmacy
• Director of education
• Chair of trustees for the new charity

The director of finance and technology role will be a new role under the new royal college executive team, ‘with specialist charity experience’, the RPS said.

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The organisation ‘will no longer require’ its existing ‘chief officer’ roles outside that of a chief executive, it added.

The Pharmacist understands the RPS director roles across the devolved nations, and the president role will continue as part of the new leadership team.

Current chief executive Mr Bennett will continue to lead the organisation to ensure a ‘successful transition’ to a royal college, noted the RPS.

It said the transition was ‘expected to be complete by mid-April 2026’ at which point Mr Bennett will depart and deputy chief executive Ms Baxter will take over on an interim basis.

Today, Mr Bennett said the executive leadership appointments ‘will ensure the organisation has the right skills, capabilities and structure in place to ensure the Royal College of Pharmacy can flourish and deliver its future strategy’.

‘Our current leadership team have guided the organisation to this point and established the strong and sustainable financial and technological foundations the new royal college and publishing subsidiary will build on,’ he said.

He extended his thanks to chief operating officer, Rick Russell, chief technology officer, Avril Chester and deputy chief executive, Karen Baxter, for their ‘invaluable help and support’.

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‘Now, at this pivotal moment it is important that we establish a future leadership team with charity and royal college experience that is the right one to take forward our ambitions,’ added Mr Bennett.

Professor Claire Anderson, RPS president, praised Mr Bennett’s leadership as well as the ‘strategic and planned’ approach of the current executive team as they navigate this transition.

‘The new Royal College of Pharmacy will start out in April 2026 invested with the hopes of all in pharmacy and an ambitious new strategy to put into action,’ she added.

‘We must all stand ready to support the royal college as it sets out to deliver the strong and collaborative professional leadership body that pharmacy deserves.’

In March 2025, members of the RPS voted for proposed changes that would see it become a royal college. A third of RPS members turned out to vote and of those, 71.1% voted in favour of the changes.

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Earlier this year, David Webb, chief pharmaceutical officer (GPhO) for England said the soon-to-be Royal College of Pharmacy must ‘excite’ and ‘interest’ pharmacists.