Episode 43 - Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO, BGIUK

In this episode, Nigel Sullivan, Chief Sustainability and People Officer, speaks to Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO of the Bupa Global, India and UK Market Unit about how things are going with Savannah27 and our three emblematic projects so far, and what's next for BGIUK.

What is The Running Elephant?

Hear more about our Savannah27 strategy from our Group CEO, Iñaki Ereño, and other leaders from across Bupa. Hosted by Nigel Sullivan, Chief Sustainability & People Officer.

Running Elephant podcast
Episode 43 - Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO, BGIUK

In this episode, Nigel Sullivan, Chief Sustainability and People Officer, speaks to Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO of the Bupa Global, India and UK Market Unit about how things are going with Savannah27 and our three emblematic projects so far, and what's next for BGIUK.

Please note: this transcript has been produced by AI, with minor revisions made by a member of the Group Internal Communications Team, so please forgive any grammatical inaccuracies.

Nigel: Welcome to another episode of the Running Elephant. I'm Nigel Sullivan, Bupa’s chief sustainability and people officer. Today I'm joined by Carlos Jaureguizar, CEO of our Bupa Global India and UK market unit. Carlos, welcome back to the Running Elephant.

Carlos: Thank you, Nigel. Thank you.

Nigel: Great to see you. And have you back on the podcast. A lot’s happened since we last spoke, and one of the things - it's the end of the elephant era and the start of Savannah27. Can you tell us a little bit about what you've done to make that a reality for BGIUK?

Carlos: Yes, I mean, of course, as you know, the elephant era for us has been very important for us. In the last 3-4 years it has been a huge success for the market. Not only from a financial point of view, but also from a people point of view, customer point of view. Engagement has gone up, NPS has gone up, so I can tell you that the elephant is very much appreciated in the market unit - we all loved what. We have done in. The last three years, but I think the good thing is that the Savannah era that is starting now. In 2025, I think it's gonna be even better. I think the new strategy has landed very well. And probably two things: one is that we are a very ambitious market. You need to want to do more. We want to have more million customers, we want to make life easier for our customers, patients and residents. I think the targets – the 100 NPS, the 100 million customers, and 100% of data from our customers identified - is something that resonates very well in the market unit. So I can tell you that everyone is really, really looking forward to this new era.

Nigel: Yeah, that's great to hear. Great to hear. And so memorable isn't it - all the hundreds. Yes, easy to get your head round, hard to achieve, but easy to get your head round! Look, really one of the exciting things I think as well about this next phase for the next three years is we've got our purpose longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world. For the Better World sustainability strategy we’ll pick that up in a future podcast, I'm sure, but for the first part – the longer, healthier, happier bit… There are three big emblematic projects, one on genomics, one on AI. And one in mental health. So I'd like to sort of ask you about each one of those in turn, if you don't mind, Carlos. So just starting with genomics. You know, the UK and the Spanish Sanitas team have been collaborating. I think it's about 18 months to develop my genomic health. I had my genome read myself and I had to debrief on it last week. I mean, how's that been going? From your point of view of that project.

Carlos: I mean, I think. It has been. Fantastic. I mean, we all know that this strategy and the Emblematic is a framework. It's a global framework, is a North Star, but at the same time we know that Healthcare is local. So the implementation needs to be local. But I think this project has enabled us to collaborate – and the UK and Spain working together in order to have a huge impact not only from the point of view of the more than than 10,000 people that will have the genome sequence, but it has had a lot of impact on how we work - working together as one team and doing the execution I think It has been really great. And and and lots of learnings I think for me the the key point here is that we we're moving into a new territory. Probably a place where it was out of our comfort zone and I think we have proved that two different teams working from two different market units working together can have amazing results.

Nigel: It's been great to see and I had my debrief said last week, and the geneticist said this is very much a medical term, but it's a good one, she said. Your genome is unremarkable. I said, well, that's good. I know I didn't want to have remarkable anywhere, she said. No, no, unremarkable is good, but it's it's a fascinating thing and you learn so much and it's gonna change the face of medicine, I think, isn't it? It's really game changer.

Carlos: Yes, yes, definitely, yeah.

Nigel: And just to that point, I mean, we've learned a lot from the trials and the experimentation that's been going on. Where does it go next? From your point of view in your market unit?

Carlos: Yes. So I think, I mean, you know that you need the UK like for four years. So I had to learn about cricket and had to learn about rugby. So I think I'm going to use a a rugby metaphor, which is basically I think genomics, you could choose what could be in the in the wing or it could be in the scrum. And I think with decided that the genomics should be the scrum, which means it's going to be in the core of our business, the core of our proposal. So for me, I think that's the the high level summary. I think it's going to be embedded in our insurance proposition. It's gonna be embedded in our health assessment. It's gonna be embedded in our clinics proposition. So I think that's a good way of understanding how genomics is gonna be a game changer. But again, genomics is not going to be playing in the wing. It's going to be in the in the centre. We'll be changing how we deliver healthcare.

Nigel: Very good. Good analogy and I think you picked the right sport from my point of view, but we don't want to talk about cricket. You do want to be out for a duck (!), but anyway, moving on, AI is another key project. You know, we've been really interested in AI for several years now. I think the project here is very, very specific and it's extracting data from PDF and other medical records using AI - making that more accessible and user friendly for our clinicians. And giving them space to do their job instead of all the administration that kind of goes with that sort of thing. What does it mean for you? How does it become a reality? In BGIUK.

Carlos: Think this is a a very relevant project - you are aware that in the UK it's difficult to find nurses. It's difficult to find dentist, clinicians. So, so there's a huge fight for talent and specifically medical talent. And I think we've done an amazing job. I think when you see our proposition, our attrition numbers, we've done a fantastic job in all divisions. So I'm super proud, but I think we need to keep pushing and as you said, I think, a key element here is gonna be how you make life easier to those clinicians. How do you make sure they can spend time in taking care of our patients and and members and not unending tasks? And I think this project is going to a game changer.
You're already seeing results in our dental business and I think the results are very, very encouraging. So I think it's gonna be a a game changer.

Nigel: That's fantastic. I I guess like I mean… Thinking about it says the ease of, you know, easing the burden of administration and all that stuff and giving people more time with the patients and the residents as you say, but, I I presume like in the end clinical outcomes will be better because they've got access to better data, more accurate all in one place and more accurate notes and stuff like that. I guess it will actually improve not just the lives of our clinicians, which is important, but also the lives of our customers.

Carlos: For sure, for sure. I think that is lots of things. I think clinical outcomes but also pathways. I think it also touches relevant information because at the end I mean these type of tools will enable clinicians to access that summarised information but also will enable us to share part of that information with the patients, I mean, we shouldn't forget that the owner of the data is the patient. So making that information. Available for them. And more importantly, available for them in the Bupa platform in the Bupa world, it's gonna be super valuable and at the same time it's a way of making sure that they stay with us because we are providing that information and we are making that information accessible to them. So again that's going to be a huge point of differentiation when you compare Bupa versus our competitors in the UK.

Nigel: Yeah, I guess you know it. It speaks also to those two of the four Ps of Healthcare - the personalisation and participation - people want to get involved in their in their own healthcare, don't they? We will help them with that.

Carlos: Yes, 100%.

Nigel: But the last of the three emblematic is mental health, and this is a really big one. So we've recently launched a new brand called Mindplace globally, and we're gonna commit ourselves to opening 200 mindplaces over the next three years. Mental health clinics. But they've already started opening around the place. I mean, we see it [mental health] as a… It's its own, you know, pandemic in a way, you know, that's that that we are being people are getting overwhelmed with this stuff now across the world and we're going to play our part to change the face of mental health across the world. What does it look like for BGIUK? Where are you up to with the plans?

Carlos: So as, as you said, there's a global pandemic. But I think the UK, it has been super relevant and when when you see the the figures of how claims have increased in the last 2-3 years in mental health, it's high double digit. So so we see it in the mental health claims.

Nigel: Yep.

Carlos: But at the same time, in the conversations with our corporate accounts, our big accounts are very, very worried about the mental health of their employees. And I think long story short, there's a big point here regarding accessibility. I think what what we have had in the past is that people were not able to access to the correct treatment at the correct time, which basically generates an issue which is when you get to the clinician it's probably too late, right? So I think we are putting a lot of pressure into the system because we are not tackling the issue at the very beginning.

Nigel: Right.

Carlos: And the 200 clinics and specifically the projects we have here in the UK are going to be able to do that. Maybe face to face model but also digital proposition that will enable us to give that accessibility to our members, which should be able to tackle the problem at the very beginning and at the end. What's going to happen is you are going to use less resources to solve problems because you are tackling them from the very beginning.

Nigel: But part of the whole approach here is is to reduce the stigma of, you know, admitting or you've got a mental health. We all have mental health issues these days. I think it's, you know, the actual facilities themselves will be very, very user friendly, they won't look like hospitals really, will they? I mean, it's much more really breaking down that barrier so people feel comfortable to talk in a supportive environment about what's on their mind.

Carlos: Yeah, for sure. And I think also the fact that we have a big number of clinics, which means those clinics we are gonna be close to where people live and where people work. So I think in terms of logistics, that accessibility is important.

Carlos: Because as I said, they were gonna have phone and digital, but we've seen that that face to face is still very important in order to deal with health issues and more specifically with mental health issues. So. So we do think there's gonna be a great proposition and it's gonna land very, very well in in the UK.

Nigel: And how many have you got up and running? And when did that start?

Carlos: The first one is open already—we’ve got one up and running, which is fantastic. More importantly, by the end of the year, we’ll have 20. Out of those, around 16 or 17 will be standalone clinics, and 3 to 4 will be embedded within health clinics we already operate.

Nigel: Fantastic. Great progress.
And speaking of progress—this year is flying by. We’re already almost halfway through! Looking ahead to the second half of the year, what are you most excited about?

Carlos: There’s a lot happening. But going back to the Savannah strategy, I’m really looking forward to seeing how our three “One Hundreds” evolve.
I think by the end of 2025, we’ll see our NPS scores significantly improve. We’ll also grow our customer base by millions—particularly through Niva Bupa, who are doing an amazing job on that front.
And then there's data. We’ve made a lot of progress over the past three years, but there’s still much more to do in the data space. By the end of 2025, I believe the market unit will be in a much stronger position. So really, it's about those “One Hundreds,” moving at pace, and making a real impact.

Nigel: That’s fantastic—thank you, Carlos. And I think that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining me.

Carlos: Thanks for the invitation, Nigel. Great to share some insights from our market unit.

Nigel: There’s so much going on across BGIUK, and as you said, lots more to come. To everyone listening—thanks for tuning in. I hope you found the conversation useful.
If you have any questions or comments, as always, you can email us at [e-mail]. Bye for now.