Robin Jassal wins C+D Manager of the Year award
Robin Jassal has been named Manager of the Year by Chemist+Druggist, one of the UK pharmacy sector's longest-running trade publications. The award was announced on 15 May 2026.
What happened
C+D named Jassal its Manager of the Year, recognising leadership and patient care commitment across pharmacy branches. The publication, edited by James Halliwell since February 2024, runs annual awards covering pharmacy practice, business, and professional development. Halliwell brings 15 years of business journalism to the role.
The award was framed around the impact strong management has on pharmacy teams — morale, teamwork, and consistent patient care delivery across multiple sites.
Why it matters
Awards like this rarely make headlines for clinical reasons, but this one is worth a few minutes of your attention if you're thinking about where pharmacy careers actually go.
Pharmacy management is a real career track, and it looks quite different from being a registered pharmacist in a dispensary. A manager across multiple branches is handling staffing, governance, clinical standards, and business performance at the same time. Jassal's recognition centres on exactly that balance — maintaining patient care quality while leading teams across branches.
For anyone at the pre-registration stage, that's a useful picture to hold onto. The GPhC expects registrants to work within their competence and to support the people around them. Those aren't just exam concepts. They're what a pharmacy manager is accountable for every working day. The gap between understanding something for an assessment and applying it in a pressured branch environment is where career development actually happens.
There's also a broader point here about the sector's appetite for leadership. Community pharmacy is under sustained workforce pressure. Branches that run well tend to run well because someone is actively managing culture, not just rotas. Jassal's story — whatever the specific details of the award — points to that being valued and visible.
GPhC exam relevance
The GPhC Common Registration Assessment tests clinical knowledge, but it also draws on the standards for pharmacy professionals. Those standards cover working with others, maintaining trust, and taking responsibility. Leadership and management sit within that frame, even if the exam doesn't ask you to write a management plan.
Scenarios involving team communication, raising concerns, or making decisions under pressure are all areas where a grasp of how well-run pharmacy teams actually function will sharpen your answers. You won't be asked who won Manager of the Year, but understanding what good pharmacy leadership looks like gives you concrete examples to reason from.
What's next
C+D's awards programme continues through 2026. If pharmacy management or leadership is a direction you're considering post-registration, tracking who gets recognised and why is a low-effort way to build a picture of what the sector rewards.
James Halliwell's C+D is also worth following as a source. Fifteen years of business journalism, applied to pharmacy, produces a different kind of coverage than clinical titles — it catches workforce, commercial, and leadership stories that don't always surface elsewhere.
Source: Chemist+Druggist — https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/winners-story-robin-jassal-manager-of-the-year-UNN6ZJ4JFRHKDKPBSW454J4YYU/