John Spurling (businessman)
Sir John Damian Spurling, KCVO, OBE is a British businessman, who worked in advertising and is best known as founder of Pet Protect, a pet insurance company.
Early life
Born in London in 1939, Spurling was educated in Johannesburg and London.Career
He worked in advertising for the Eldorado Ice Cream Company, then became advertising manager to Dorlands and Allandyce Palmber before becoming a director of Kenya Advertising Corp. in 1963. Between 1970 and 1982, he was then chairman and chief executive of the Kenyan company Advertising Associates, which was acquired by McCann-Erikson in 1979.He then moved into pet insurance, taking over a small agency, Pet Protect, in 1984; he grew it substantially and completed a deal with the UK Kennel Club so that the Club would receive a percentage of each policy in return for officially endorsing Pet Protect. According to The Telegraph, he sold Pet Protect to GE Investments in 1997, although other sources state it was GE Capital. Spurling's Who's Who entry states he remained with Pet Protect until 2001. GE moved away from the Kennel Club relationship aspect of Pet Protect's business model, and the Kennel Club invited Spurling to launch a new insurance company. In 2002, he founded PetPartners Ltd, of which he was chairman and chief executive until 2009. Spurling also launched PetPartners Inc. for the US market and has been its chairman since 2004.