Meet Margaret McNab – Managing Director of our new Health and Wellbeing Division

As we announced at the start of the year, handl Group is moving to a new divisional structure so we can focus on the growth and development of our brands. With 12 businesses operating in the health and wellbeing markets, we needed someone with the right experience and knowledge to head up our Health and Wellbeing Division.

Someone who understands the dynamics of the health and wellbeing market, the wide variety of public and private sector needs in this area, and the opportunities and challenges in this space.  That someone is Margaret McNab.

Who is Margaret McNab?

Margaret may be new to handl Group, but she’s certainly not new to the market. Since 2002, she’s worked in almost every health role possible, for organisations like Maximus, United Health Group, HCML, BUPA, Spire Healthcare and Capita. As a Hospital Director, Sales Director Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director, she’s experienced her fair share of both challenges and opportunities.

She’s certainly no stranger to either, as her pre-health career proves.

“I spent 15 years in airport management at the major London Airports in customer service and operations roles, and in the delivery of  airport infrastructure developments.

I also managed the development of the new terminal at Bristol International Airport in the early 2000s. After that, I made the move to healthcare – first in Hospital Management – including delivery of the first wave of large scale outsourced NHS contracts for surgery. At Capita I was responsible for a number of outsourced partnership programmes with the NHS and recruitment medical assessments for the Army, RAF and Royal Navy.

I also built up my experience in Occupational Health Public Health, lifestyle programmes.  management of complex health data analytics and health decision making software. It feels like if there’s a job to be done in health and wellbeing, I’ve been a part of it!”

When Margaret was presented with the chance to join handl Group, she seized on an opportunity to join an ambitious organisation with strong aspirations for growth and a focus on making a real difference.

What convinced her to join handl Group?

“I’ve spent a lot of time working for a range of large well known UK and US brands. I gained so much valuable business experience and worked with some amazing colleagues and customers. 

“But when you’re working at that scale, decision making takes time. With handl Group, there’s a real ambition, but there’s still a chance to be responsive to customer needs and agile in your decisions to make a real difference. And the brands that make up this division, they do make a difference. The services they deliver really do improve people’s quality of life.”

It’s that ambition that really spoke to Margaret. An opportunity to help build on the group’s previous growth and deliver something really special.

“I like the range of brands and services , from larger operations like IPRS to more specialised services provided by some of the  smaller companies like Reach. Across the board we can find ways to improve performance, offer even more to customers, and help everyone build interesting value propositions.”

Why did handl Group Choose Margaret?

Did we mention her CV? 20 years at some of the leading healthcare brands in the world? An intimate knowledge of how the UK health and wellbeing market system works? When presented with that kind of experience, you have to invest in it. As Margaret puts it herself:

“I want to bring together my industry experience with the wealth of knowledge, high standards of service and enthusiasm to innovate to grow and develop our healthcare expertise.”

What’s Margaret excited about?

Making that difference.

“Working with  customers  in healthcare is about supporting the local agenda whether that’s where people live or where they work  and delivering better health outcomes to those communities. It’s about empowering individuals to own their health journey.”

And what about the people at handl she’ll be working with?

“There is a genuine passion and desire for excellence here,  everyone I have met really cares about what they do and the customers they look after  We can respond quickly to the needs of our customers whether it’s with a health assessment, an intervention such as rehabilitation or counselling, or offering a digital tool to support self care. No matter the situation, we have the right brands and their expertise.”

How will Margaret be leading her division?

It’s all about giving people space to succeed – individually and collectively.

“Each brand brings value to the market, and they all need space to be themselves and shine. I don’t want to take away anyone’s unique propositions, but there’s a way to articulate the value of our collective capability and how  we bring to the market as a group, as a team.”

Margaret’s approach is about securing the right customers and contracts to help every brand in the division to grow and do even more with the talent at their disposal.

“This is a team effort, we need to take a collegiate approach.”

Finally, what will the future look like for the Health and Wellbeing division?

In our chat, Margaret preempted the Health Secretary’s plans for “big shifts” in the NHS. And the recent review by Lord Darzi.  Wes Streeting is  calling for a move from analogue to digital, better use of integrated healthcare data and Margaret’s been working on these initiatives in her previous roles.

“There’s a huge opportunity to do more business by offering more to support the NHS digital strategy. There needs to be a move to digital in the health sector, and we’re already doing that. In terms of mental health and physiotherapy, we’ve got a strong digital offering. We’ve also got some really strong, well-regarded specialist brands cornering their parts of the market and that’s another area we can explore for growth.”

Growth is Margaret’s goal, which makes her the perfect fit for handl Group. With her experience and connections, we’re certain the future’s bright for the Health and Wellbeing division.