Alumni Laureate awards ceremony
Two of our graduates are winners of this year's Alumni Laureate Awards:
Mr Alistair Murray (MPharm 2002) receives a recent Graduate Award and
Mr Edgar Wallner (Pharmacy 1958) receives a Lifetime Achievement Award
This year’s Alumni Laureate Awards ceremony took place on Saturday 7 May. The awards were one of the highlights of the May Fest 2011 celebrations where alumni, friends and their families were welcomed back on campus for a variety of events.
Mr Alistair Murray (MPharm 2002)
Alistair Murray is the Senior Partner and co-founder of Green Light Pharmacy, a new concept in healthcare run by community pharmacists. Founded in 1999, its primary activity is to deliver healthcare services to the community, geared towards providing services that are "person centred" and "community focussed". It is 100% owned by its pharmacists and staff, recruits locally, and builds partnerships with local neighbourhood organisations.
Green Light now has five branches in London, and its branch in Camden services a large Bangladeshi community. Green Light started to clarify and develop patient education services, and hold regular health education sessions which are tailored to the health beliefs of the local community and work on how people could lead healthier lives but in ways appropriate to their lifestyles. Healthy walks start from the pharmacy and it also undertake outreach work in the local mosque, bingo hall and employers.
Green Light's Euston Station branch has invested in and actively involved its local community. Whilst providing typical pharmacy services from ground-level premises, its basement has been transformed, with neighbourhood renewal funding and private investment, into a local health education and meeting centre with a particular focus on the needs of older people, ethnic minorities and those with long-term illness.
Green Light also operates a training programme for community volunteers, which enables them to become community leaders on health issues.
After graduation, Mr Murray worked at Boots, first as a Pre-Registration Pharmacist, then as a Store Manager.
Mr Edgar Wallner (Pharmacy 1958)
Edgar Wallner was a Director of Cozart, a pioneering medical diagnostics company which specializes in drugs of abuse detection. He was also a Director of Arrow Medical Ltd and Director of Encore Tickets Ltd, which was sold last year. He is currently a Director of Micrima, a company out of Bristol University developing radar technology for the detection of breast cancer.
Mr Wallner set up National Angels Ltd to transfer plays from the subsidized theatre to the commercial theatre and return most of any profit to the originating theatre. Two successes have been The History Boys and War Horse, currently in its second year in the West End and having recently opened to acclaim at the Lincoln Center in New York.
Mr Wallner maintains a keen interest in the arts and he and his wife are Life Benefactor Donors of the National Theatre. He is a member of its Development Council, and helped to set up an Enterprise Investment Scheme finding 80% of the capital needed following the reduction in transfers of money to the National Theatre from the West End.
Mr Wallner is a major donor to the University and his donations have helped with a variety of funds including: the renovation of the Student's Theatre; Children’s Brain Tumour Research; and the Arts Centre Appeal. He also made a gift of shares to the D H Lawrence Pavilion for the photograph gallery, which was named The Wallner Gallery in appreciation.
His wife Judith is also a Nottingham alumna (French 1959), as are his son Michael (American Studies 1988) and his daughter Rebecca (French 1999). He has two other children.
Posted on Monday 9th May 2011