Former Bupa commercial director Patrick Watt has taken a role at Nord Anglia Education as its chief admissions officer, leaving the healthcare industry altogether.
Watt left Bupa in August following a restructuring of the company. According to Bupa, its long-term strategy aims to promote growth in its IPMI portfolio, offer customers services that are unmatched in the market, and collaborate with distribution partners. Bupa says that it is establishing more distinct lines of authority across all of its global areas in order to bring decision-making closer to its customers in order to carry out its long-term growth strategy.
The company says that in order to have full accountability for performance, sales, and distribution for each region, it has established three regional business units, each of which is headed by a general manager.
Conor Heery and Dean Pollard will both remain in their roles as general managers of Europe and the Middle East and Asia, respectively. Subject to regulatory approval, Nichola Thomson will join Bupa Global in January 2023 as general manager for the UK and Africa.
In a Linkedin post Watt said: “Together with Richard Seymour (chief marketing officer) we will be responsible for growing the revenue across our family of 82 schools. It felt like a big decision to move to a new business in a different sector after over 20 years in health and financial services, but I am so pleased I made the change.
“Nord Anglia is an incredible business that provides the very best educational experience for their 75k young people and children. I am so impressed with our 14k teaching colleagues for their relentless focus on educating and equipping our students with the skills to succeed in a fast-changing world. A huge thank you to Andrew Fitzmaurice, our executive team, investors and principals for a warm welcome.”