"PAM Group is a dynamic and interesting business and has a fantastic group of people to work with as we look to implement our exciting strategic plans"
Phil Foster
Preventative healthcare specialist PAM Group has appointed a new chief financial officer to succeed Stewart Boxer, who has retired after seven years with the business.
Phil Foster, 55, has taken over the strategic day-to-day financial management of the Warrington-based group and its subsidiary businesses in a planned succession.
He was recruited to the group earlier this year through Rowan Executive Search to a corporate finance role to help facilitate private equity firm LDC’s minority investment into PAM, which was completed in June. LDC’s backing will help drive PAM’s organic growth and support product launches.
Phil is a chartered accountant with more than 30 years’ experience in finance and strategic finance roles, including senior positions at foodservice giant Brakes, contract caterer Elior UK and airport ground services and air cargo handling business Swissport UK.
PAM Group, founded in 2004 by chief executive James Murphy, is one of the UK’s largest occupational health and wellness providers. It offers a range of integrated programmes to public and private sector clients, supporting more than 600,000 employees at over 1,000 businesses and organisations.
Its services include absence management, physiotherapy, employee assistance programmes, psychological support, corporate health assessments, neurodiversity assessments and drug and alcohol screening. It also has a retail operation supplying fitness, exercise and rehabilitation equipment to sports clubs and sports and physiotherapy professionals.
James said: “Stewart has decided to retire and leave the business after seven years. In his time with us he played a key role in the growth of PAM Group through increased sales and acquisitions. His contribution to the growth and success of PAM Group has been greatly appreciated and I wish him well for the future.
“Phil has successfully managed businesses from £40m turnover to £400m, and has worked with PE-backed companies for nearly 20 years. I am confident he will be a tremendous asset as our CFO by providing support to the board and our management teams as we look to achieve our ambitious growth plans.”
PAM Group, which employs 650 staff, is looking to double annual revenues to £80m within the next three years through continued organic growth and acquisitions.
Phil said: “PAM Group is a dynamic and interesting business and has a fantastic group of people to work with as we look to implement our exciting strategic plans.”
His move to CFO follows two further senior group appointments in recent months.
Caroline Munday has joined as group people director from International Personal Finance, where she was group head of human resources and organisational development. She has 27 years’ experience in senior HR roles in the public and private sectors, including ones at Northern Rail, Lincolnshire Police and the NHS.
Caroline said: “I can’t think of a more important sector to be working in right now – the health and wellbeing of UK employees has never been as vital. I was drawn to the role by James’s vision for PAM Group of sustained business growth and his philosophy of creating a high-performing people culture. It’s a great time to join PAM.”
James said: “Caroline is passionate about her specialist area and has an impressive track record of creating value through highly-effective and engaging people strategies and building high-performing teams to innovate, enable change and deliver results with energy and pace.”
Lee Kingshott has joined PAM as chief technology officer. His role is to support and lead the delivery of technical investments in PAM’s various business units and deliver solutions in line with its growth ambitions. He has held senior board positions for over 25 years at companies including Optionis Group, Payzone and divisions of two UK clearing banks.
Lee said: “I was very impressed by the passion of the team at PAM and their real desire to deliver a best-in-class service to their clients. The team at PAM clearly recognise the critical role that technology plays in providing this service and I am truly excited about being able to help them to deliver this vision.”
James said: “Lee has a strong track record of delivering IT strategy and transformation that leads to significant commercial results. He’s innovative and progressive in his approach, already having built a comprehensive new IT strategy and team to serve PAM Group’s future IT capability needs to support our growth plans.”
James is pictured, seated, with L-R Phil Foster, Caroline Munday and Lee Kingshott.
