Bupa hires two senior marketers

Bupa, the UK’s biggest private medical insurer, has appointed two senior marketers following a recent company wide restructure into five strategic business units.

Howard Beveridge will take the newly created position of marketing and sales director for hospitals and health screening. Beveridge joins from Barclaycard, where he was head of product development. Prior to that he was at United Biscuits and Cadbury Schweppes.

Eileen Folan joins as head of marketing planning and intelligence – another new post – after 14 years as United Distillers’ head of consumer planning and research for Europe .

The Beveridge and Folan appointments follow that of Elaine Greenwood, the former Grattan customer and marketing director, who became marketing director for Bupa’s UK membership in July.

All three report to Pat Stafford, who was promoted from marketing director to group marketing director in July.

Stafford says the new marketing roles were created as a result of the recent reorganisation of Bupa into business units and group functions. She adds: “It shows Bupa’s increased emphasis on marketing to get our products out.”

The company was restructured to bring UK and overseas operations under the direct management of the new chief executive Val Gooding, who took over when Peter Jacobs retired in August.

The restructure involved splitting the company into five strategic business units – insurance, hospitals, care homes, the Spanish subsidiary Sanitas and new businesses including travel and dental insurance and overseas operations.

Bupa retained Ogilvy & Mather for its 5m advertising account following a review which was called after Stafford’s promotion. (MW 25 June 1998) It has also kept the “You’re amazing ” theme for its television advertising.