Jonathan Brüün will be leaving his role as CEO of the British Pharmacological Society in January 2020. He will be taking up a new post as Chief Executive of the Royal College of Anaesthetists.
Jonathan joined the British Pharmacological Society in 2009 as Head and then Director of Communications. He became CEO in June 2012 and has been responsible for delivering the vision, mission and strategy of the Society and its subsidiary companies. The Society represents well over 4,000 members studying and working on drug discovery, development and delivery in industrial, academic and clinical sectors.
As CEO, Jonathan has had overall responsibility for strategic and financial management, business development, human resources, policy development, governance and the oversight of projects that are designed to support the UK and international pharmacology community.
As part of this role, Jonathan has also been Managing Director of BPS Assessment, which focuses on providing online education and assessment resources to a global community of prescribers, educators and regulators.
During Jonathan’s time as CEO, the British Pharmacological Society grew substantially in performance and impact. Membership rose by over 20%, while diversification of the Society’s business portfolio saw annual revenues also grow, providing stability to the organisation and supporting the delivery of a huge range of charitable activities. Jonathan expanded the staff team in this same period, in part to invest in that growth, and to ensure effective delivery of the Society’s core charitable objectives - the promotion of the discipline of pharmacology, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics.
President of the Society, Prof Steve Hill, said: “Jonathan has been a great asset to the Society over the last decade. He has overseen tremendous growth in the Society and it is in a very strong position due to his considerable efforts. I thank him for that. It has been a great personal pleasure for me to work closely with him during my time as President-Elect and President. We have achieved a lot and it has been great fun. He has built a fantastic team at Angel Gate and he has taken great pride in their development. We will miss him, but we must take equal pride in his own development during his time with us. He has been offered a tremendous opportunity to further his own career with the Royal College of Anaesthetics and I wish him every success for the future. His BPS family will follow his future career with great interest”.
Brüün said: “It has been a privilege to steward the British Pharmacological Society as its CEO over the last seven years. In that time, I have been lucky enough to work with some of the brightest, best and most creative people I’ve ever met, including Phil Routledge, Humphrey Rang, David Webb and Steve Hill, whose presidencies I’ve been lucky to serve, and our growing staff team, who have been an honour to work with – they are a simply wonderful bunch of people.
I’m very proud of everything we have achieved together, whether it’s the growth in member numbers and satisfaction, the establishment of a policy unit which truly punches above its weight, the focus on quality in our annual meetings and the development of a content strategy led by scientific advisory panel to help deliver this, the continued professionalisation of the BPS office, and the generation of new sources of revenue to underpin our future activities. All this will ensure BPS will be a happy and inclusive home for anyone with an interest in pharmacology, clinical pharmacology and therapeutics in future.”
The Trustees of the Society will meet on Thursday 22 August 2019 to plan the recruitment process for a new CEO, which is expected to begin imminently.