Howden Employee Benefits chief operating officer (COO) Peter Murphy has taken on an expanded remit with responsibility for the firm’s combined employee benefits business, which spans 2,600 UK colleagues following the integration of Barnett Waddingham.
Barnett Waddingham has now completed its rebrand to Howden, following its sale in February last year.
Murphy (pictured) has served as COO of Howden’s Employee Benefits division for the past six years. His remit now extends across the enlarged UK business of 2,600 employees, bringing together Howden’s existing employee benefits team with staff from its recent acquisitions including Barnett Waddingham, the employee benefits consultancy arm of Evelyn Partners and Hymans Robertson’s insurance and financial services consulting team.
Globally, Howden’s employee benefits division comprises approximately 4,000 experts across 40 countries, with combined revenues exceeding £500m.
As COO, Murphy will lead operational delivery and technology-enabled transformation across the combined business, building a single operating platform capable of supporting Howden’s growth ambitions in the UK and internationally.
Glenn Thomas, CEO and global practice leader – health and employee benefits, said: “Employee benefits is one of the fastest growing parts of Howden, and in the UK, we have built a business that can compete with anyone. Peter has been central to that. Asking him to take on the combined business reflects both the scale of what we have created and our confidence in him to run it.
“We have deliberately built out the senior leadership team over the past year to match that ambition, bringing in real strength and hard-won experience from outside our sector as well as within it.
“Howden Group has set out its 30/30 vision to become a £10bn business by 2030. Employee benefits will be a significant part of delivering that, and Peter’s role is central to making sure we have the operational foundations to get there.”
Peter Murphy, chief operating officer at Howden Employee Benefits, added: “This business has changed enormously in a short space of time, and that is exactly why this new role matters now. My focus is on making sure the operational, technology and data foundations match the ambition.
“In practice that means stronger connectivity across our systems and processes, better use of the data we hold and simpler ways of working across teams. Get that right and clients feel it in the quality and consistency of what we deliver, and colleagues feel it every day.”
