Inaugurated at BVA Congress 

Peter Harlech Jones was elected President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) for 2012/2013 at their Annual General Meeting on Saturday, as part of BVA Congress held at the Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, from 27th - 29th September.

Mr Jones is an international consultant on veterinary medicines who was born and raised in North Wales. He qualified from the University of Liverpool Veterinary School in 1971and has worked in practice both in the UK and in Canada. After joined the pharmaceutical industry, he spent 20 years in the animal health business in the UK and overseas, and in 1995 was appointed the first head of the Veterinary Division at the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) in London.

He has also served as head of the International Federation of Animal Health (IFAH) and, within the BVA, has served on the Veterinary Policy Group and chair of the Medicines Group.

Former secretary and chairman of the Association of Veterinarians in Industry (AVI), Mr Jones participates in the work of the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe (FVE) and as a consultant to GALVmed.

Mr Jones commented: “My background is in pharma research and international regulatory affairs and I am confident that my experience will be useful as we anticipate the new EU Animal Health Law and medicines legislation. But I am driven to do much more for the veterinary profession than just in those fields.
 
“The word ‘value’ really began to resonate for me when I started thinking of my theme for the year ahead as President of BVA.
 
“In whatever role we play vets are adding value in so many areas of our professional lives to society at large in a huge and significant contribution to the public good. I firmly believe that we, as an association and as a profession, must use every opportunity to reinforce the message about the value we give in all aspects of our work, and to believe in ourselves."

The BVA Officer Team will also comprise Carl Padgett as Past President and Robin Hargreaves as President Elect.