Meet Chris Chatterton – handl Group’s Chief Commercial Officer

It sounds like the setup to a particularly obscure joke. “A geneticist, a sugar substitute salesman and a motor insurance expert walk into a bar…”

That’s not a joke at all. It’s something handl Group CCO Chris Chatterton can do all on his own.

Just like our group brings seemingly disparate businesses together to form a successful whole, Chris’ career has been one of taking opportunities that don’t quite seem to form a linear path and turning them into success – for himself and now group-wide.

Who is Chris Chatterton?

Where can you start with our CCO? His time with some of the country’s leading insurance experts might seem obvious, but his time as head of corporate marketing at RAC Motoring Services won’t tell you as much about Chris as an anecdote about his sporting adventures. And despite Chris’ love for Leeds United, it actually involves a final.

“While I was living in Toronto, I played in the inaugural Canadian Aussie Rules Final as a substitute. I don’t play, watch or understand Aussie Rules, but I ended up on the bench at The Skydome, and when a player got injured, on I came.”

If that’s not proof that Chris isn’t one to pass up an opportunity – no matter how seemingly unusual – we don’t know what is.

How Chris ended up in Toronto is a story in itself. After achieving a first class honours degree in cell and molecular biology, he decided that a PhD focusing on the microbial degradation of cyanide waste didn’t seem like the career for him. A year or so later, he was in Toronto launching sugar substitute Splenda in Canada for Tate & Lyle.

“It wasn’t the most obvious career path, but I needed a proper job, took the meeting, and ended up on the other side of the world working with a few Australians. One thing led to another, and I’m on the bench of an Aussie Rules final without knowing the rules.”

Taking the meeting.

That’s a theme that comes up time and time again in Chris’ story. Returning to England, he moved away from sweeteners and into motor industry and insurance. Head of marketing fleet services for the RAC, multiple consulting roles, and then MD of the UK’s largest credit hire company.

Making connections, gaining experiences, and taking whatever meeting would lead to the next opportunity.

One of those meetings led to a company called Speed Medical. If you’re familiar with our group, you’ll have heard of them.

How did Chris join handl Group?

“I took the meeting to join Speed Medical in 2010 before handl Group had even been thought of. There was an opportunity to grow that business and diversify – and that growth and diversification turned into us acquiring MLA and creating a slightly different space for them to operate. A few deals later, and we realised the smart move would be to create something bigger.”

In 2019, that bigger idea would coalesce as handl Group, and by 2025, we’d grown to encompass 23 businesses across three key areas.

“We realised that while medico/legal businesses like Speed, like MLA could grow, the more we could diversify our group, the more successful we’d be. We wanted to expand into other lines of business, create different types of revenue with different audiences, but keep an attitude and an approach that worked for everyone.”

Medico/legal has expanded into our Expert Witness & Assessment Services and Health & Wellbeing Divisions, while we’ve also invested in our Insurance & Ancillary Services companies – drawing on Chris’ experience in that area. It’s all about understanding.

“When you understand the market, you can see potential that others might miss. We’ve been able to take businesses that were doing well and see the ways they could grow and expand quickly. And because there’s so much experience across the group’s leadership, we’re able to see when something isn’t quite working and change tack to a more effective approach.”

Moving quickly, being open to opportunities, and staying on track towards clear goals. It’s an ethos shared across the whole handl Group.

What would Chris say is the key to handl’s success?

We’re back to those three key words again.

Taking the meeting.

“Always take the meeting. That’s how we’re able to stay alive to so many opportunities. Because we’re willing to talk to everyone, we have access to a really diverse network of expert contacts. Because there’s no one route to success, surrounding yourself with different kinds of people is crucial.”

Just like selling sweetener led to playing Aussie Rules in front of baffled Canadians, which in turn led to the RAC and then building a group around an expert witness company, the path to success isn’t always linear.

Things twist and turn, and you need to be flexible and spot the potential for collaboration and mutual support in any situation. It’s worked for Chris, and it’s continuing to work for handl. Especially, as Chris explains, when it comes to financing the growth of our businesses.

“Despite building such a broad, diverse network, we’ve never needed to go out looking for external investment. Everything we’ve built has been funded by the previous success of the group, whether that’s by re-investing our own profits, or securing bank loans because we’re clear and open about how and when we’ll generate returns. We’ve never over-mortgaged, and that’s something to be proud of.”

Relying on ourselves to fund our own growth ties into another of Chris’ approaches:

“Self-reliance is always key. Nobody is going to go out there and find success for you. You’ve got to make your own luck.”

And the best way to do that? Simple.

“Always take the meeting. You’ll never know where it might lead.”