Julian Stainton – Keynote Speaker

Julian Stainton is the Chief Executive of WPA (the Western Provident Association), one of the UK’s leading health insurers.

The origins of WPA lie in the early Trade Union movements, providing access to healthcare – such as it was – through workplace contributions. WPA has a remarkable reputation for industry-leading standards of service coupled with highly innovative product development. WPA has been voted top service provider by health insurance policyholders for the last ten years running and is one of only a handful of companies, worldwide, to be accredited with the Gold Standard Kite-Mark by the British Standards Institution. The guiding principle behind the Company’s success is to treat all customers as one would hope to be treated oneself.

Julian sees his job as seeing the world through the eyes of the consumer. Officially he is the CEO but his real job is as the chief representative of customers. When Julian joined WPA it was an Edwardian bubble. Technology of any kind was not permitted. Staff were only allowed to write in pencil, managers in ink.

In 2004 and 2005 WPA was one of the Sunday Times’s top 100 companies. They are the only insurer, anywhere, to publish their complaints and service standards annually. WPA has been voted top service provide, 10 years running, by policy holders of all medical insurers; ranked No 1 for service by the medical profession; and won numerous customer service, innovation and product innovation national awards. In a billion pounds of claim payments not a single complaint against WPA has been upheld by the Financial Ombudsmans Service.

Julian is a regular speaker at industry conferences and international conventions. Customer Service is his subject and he addresses it from many different angles.

Prior to joining WPA Julian worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and for leading advertising and PR agencies specialising in healthcare.