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Executive Overview
British United Provident Association Ltd. (BUPA) was established in 1947 as a private health insurance company. BUPA has no shareholders and reinvests any profit it makes into the business. In the last 50 years, it has significantly expanded its activities to become a global health and care organization, with nearly four million members in 180 countries. Much of this growth has been by acquisition, and in recent years BUPA has spent 400 million (approximately $US 640 million) on acquiring businesses. BUPA has a network of 36 well-equipped hospitals and 34 health screening centers throughout the U.K. In addition, it operates 233 care homes and 54 retirement home developments.
Val Gooding joined BUPA in September 1996 as marketing director and was appointed chief executive in August 1998. With the aim of increasing its customer focus, she has organized BUPA into six business units-BUPA Well-being & Corporate Health, BUPA Membership Services, BUPA Hospitals, BUPA Care Services, New Businesses, and Sanitas, the leading private health care organization in Spain. BUPA has also a significant presence in Thailand and Hong Kong, and is opening a new business in Ireland and joint ventures in Saudi Arabia and India. In 1999, BUPA developed a new vision statement, "Taking care of the lives in our hands," to guide its approach to customers. Before joining BUPA, VaI Gooding was director of the Asia Pacific Division of British Airways, and previously held a variety of managerial posts with that company, including training, personnel, marketing, and cabin services. Ms. Gooding has an honors degree in French Studies from Warwick University. In November 1998, she became the first woman board director of the British Airports Authority plc. She is also on the board of the U.K.'s leading telecommunications company, Cable & Wireless.
How important is employee health to your company?
Health is our business. It's what we as a company are all about. We have 40,000 members of staff in the U.K., plus over 1,500 employees overseas. We take the health and well-being of our management and employees very seriously. We recognize that as the U.K.'s leading independent health company, the way in which we approach the health care of our own employees is as a role model to other organizations. Indeed,...