College welcomes appointment of CEO to Federation of Royal Colleges of Physicians

02 Jun 2023

The President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow today welcomed the appointment of Rachel O’Flynn as the new Chief Executive Officer of the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK.

The Federation is a collaboration between the College and our sister institutions, The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and The Royal College of Physicians London. Collectively, the colleges represent more than 50,000 physicians worldwide.

Mike McKirdy, President of the College, said: “On behalf of the College, I warmly welcome Rachael’s appointment as CEO of the Federation.  We are very much looking forward to working with her in the coming months, as we continue to collectively support doctors in medical specialties at every stage of their career. We know that she will bring an exciting vision for the future which will help us to shape the landscape for physicians and offer ever improving CPD, examinations and training.”

Chair of the Federation, Professor Andrew Elder, said he was delighted to announce the new appointment: “Rachael has previously worked for the Federation, firstly as Head of Operations managing the delivery of the MRCP(UK) and SCE examinations, and then as the director of the JRCPTB

“Rachael has most recently been the CEO of the British Cardiovascular Society (BCS), acting as principal advisor and executive officer to the Board of Trustees, leading the operational and financial management of the BCS, and supporting strategic vision, good governance and transformational change, providing an increasing range and quality of services to members, since her arrival in 2017.

“Her wealth of management and leadership experience is underpinned by her MA in Human Resource Management and former membership of the education faculty for the Harvard Macy Institute Leading Innovations in Health Care and Education Programme.

“We are very excited about Rachael leading the Federation into this next chapter of its development.

“I would also like to express my thanks to Chris Ward-McQuaid who has been doing an excellent job as interim COO for the Federation. Chris will continue in the role ahead of Rachael taking up her new role with Federation on 18 September 2023.”

Category: College