Alex Williams MCIPD
Neath
Summary
Results-driven professional with expertise in P&L accountability, employee engagement leadership, and change leadership. Demonstrates exceptional communication skills and a strong aptitude for judgement and decision-making to drive organisational success. Committed to fostering a culture of collaboration and innovation while delivering measurable business outcomes.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work history
Professional Standards and Quality Manager, Wales and West
Boots UK
10.2025 - 01.2026
- Supporting 119 pharmacies to uphold high quality of Pharmacy standards.
- First Pharmacy Technician appointed as a PSQM across the organisation.
- A representative of the superintendent pharmacist office across stores within Wales and West, business partnering with Director of Stores and Area managers to embed best practices to uphold GPhC standards.
- Supporting Area and Store Managers with incident management, ensuring patient safety incidents are robustly investigated and corrective actions implemented with shared learnings.
- Collaborating externally with local health boards to address patient safety concerns raised.
- Supporting area managers and store managers with employee relation cases involving pharmacy professionals, collaborating with ER partners to offer professional opinion and advice to support case management.
- Support professional development of store leaders, pharmacists, and pharmacy teams on pharmacy visits through coaching and training.
Area Manager, Southeast Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2024 - 01.2026
- 22 pharmacies | 22 direct reports | 360 indirect reports | £40M revenue | £7M payroll
- Accountable for people practices and strategy, ensuring they align with wider organisational focuses and goals.
- Developed and implemented an area people plan to focus on skills and capabilities, well-being, recruitment, succession planning, equality, diversity, and inclusion.
- Analysed the current capability of my team to assess their skills and future needs. This supported me to target learning initiatives to support their development and improve their personal and team's performance.
- Delivered development sessions for my direct reports with support of senior store managers, these sessions focused on performance management, absence processes, and leadership abilities/capabilities to improve their overall capability to improve their performance.
- Set up and led regional forum for pharmacists to enable employee voice and gain valuable insights into how this population of employees are feeling and to look for solutions to any issues so they could be rectified promptly or escalated accordingly.
- Collaborated with external stakeholders at BITC (business in the community), to improve job access for school leavers, older workers, and underrepresented groups. This work enabled me to represent Boots externally, participating and speaking as a panelist to highlight how Boots plays a pivotal role in the communities they serve.
Area Manager, Southwest Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
02.2020 - 04.2024
- 22 pharmacies | 22 direct reports | 378 indirect reports | £35M revenue | £6M payroll
- Led team of 22 direct reports and 378 indirect reports across 22 pharmacies, delivering improvements in performance across customer care, with satisfaction scores rising by 15% over 4 years.
- Delivered four years of continued market share growth for pharmacy items.
- Improved core services performance, achieving YOY growth every year across common ailment service, discharge medicine reviews, and NHS flu.
- Managed £6 million payroll and £35 million revenue budgets, delivering consistent on target financial performance.
- Led store closure process of unprofitable pharmacies, ensuring colleagues were redeployed to other local positions. This process demonstrated care for employees and ensure store leaders embedded sustainable long-term change to maximise business profitability.
- Regional recruitment lead, collaborating with other area managers and head office colleagues to reduce key pharmacy role vacancy rates and improve retention.
General Manager, Boots Swansea
Walgreens Boots Alliance
10.2017 - 01.2020
- Flagship site | 115 colleagues | £8M turnover
- Led second largest business unit in Wales region, consistently achieving improved operational performance and customer satisfaction.
- Full accountabilty of employee lifecycle.
- Took ownership of complex ER issues, ensuring compliance and improving employee relations, contributing to 15% increase in annual engagement survey scores.
- Partnered with local businesses to boost city centre footfall and enhance customer engagement.
- Delivered YOY growth for core pharmacy items growth, NHS and private services and retail sales.
Area Manager, Mid Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2016 - 10.2017
- 14 pharmacies | 14 direct reports | 185 indirect reports
Multiple Store colleague and Store Management positions, South/North Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2005 - 04.2016
Education
CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma - Strategic People Management
CIPD
AvadoCIPD Level 5 Diploma - Human Resource Management
CIPD
AvadoNVQ Level 3 - Pharmacy Services
NPA
Skills
- P and L accountability
- Employee engagement leadership
- Communication skills
- Change leadership
- Judgement and decision making
REFERENCES
Available upon request
Timeline
Professional Standards and Quality Manager, Wales and West
Boots UK
10.2025 - 01.2026
Area Manager, Southeast Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2024 - 01.2026
Area Manager, Southwest Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
02.2020 - 04.2024
General Manager, Boots Swansea
Walgreens Boots Alliance
10.2017 - 01.2020
Area Manager, Mid Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2016 - 10.2017
Multiple Store colleague and Store Management positions, South/North Wales
Walgreens Boots Alliance
04.2005 - 04.2016
CIPD Level 7 Advanced Diploma - Strategic People Management
CIPD
CIPD Level 5 Diploma - Human Resource Management
CIPD
NVQ Level 3 - Pharmacy Services
NPA