Specialist health and wellbeing intermediary and consultancy PES is ramping up its ambitious plans with the appointment of Stuart Gray, founder and chairman of Portus Consulting, as non-executive chairman.
Health & Protection’s sister title, Corporate Adviser, reports today that Gray (pictured) is to join a senior management team headed up by Tobin Murphy-Coles, who was appointed as CEO of PES just a few weeks ago.
The appointments of the entrepreneurs signal the intentions of the majority owner of PES, Chiltern Capital, which has ambitious plans for growth providing employee benefit technology, consultancy and broking coupled with pension, wellbeing and HR consultancy to the mid-market.
Gray’s success with Portus saw the consultancy acquired by Aon in 2017. Murphy-Coles, meanwhile, was formerly chief commercial officer of Lorica, which was acquired by Aon 2014, and is himself a co-founder of wellbeing tech provider Earthmiles. He also recently supported Cushon with the launch of its workplace pension proposition.
Murphy-Coles said: “There is a substantial opportunity for an ambitious EBC like PES to respond to the real needs of businesses in difficult times. Mid-sized firms still want to offer market leading reward and benefit offerings. However, they need to counter-balance this with financial pressures due to volatility caused by the pandemic.
“The consolidation of other similar EBCs into global consultancies has left many firms wondering where they can go for clear, simple reward benefit strategies underpinned by effective technology.
Gray added: “PES, under the guidance of Tobin and his leadership team, is strongly placed to provide a creative solution to the mid-market. I firmly believe the global pandemic has opened all of our minds to new ways of working and new approaches to employee benefits, I look forward to helping Tobin and the team realise our shared vision.”