Summary
Sir John Damian Spurling, KCVO, OBE (born 1939) is a businessman.
Born in London in 1939,[1] Spurling was educated in Johannesburg and London.[2] 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.[1] in 1963. Between 1970 and 1982, he was then chairman and chief executive of the Kenyan company Advertising Associates,[2] which was acquired by McCann-Erikson in 1979.[3]
He then moved into pet insurance, taking over a small agency,[4] Pet Protect, in 1984;[2] 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.[4] According to The Telegraph, he sold Pet Protect to GE Investments in 1997,[4] although other sources state it was GE Capital.[5] Spurling's Who's Who entry states he remained with Pet Protect until 2001.[2] 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.[4] 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.[2][4]
Outside of these corporate endeavours, Spurling has been involved with charitable pursuits, such as the Animal Health Trust. He has been chairman of London Marathon since 2008 and Vice-President of the Kennel Club since 2011.[2] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2000 New Year Honours "for charitable services".[6] He was also appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Honours "for services to charity".[7]
References edit
- ^ a b The Advertising and Press Annual of All Africa (1964), p. 380.
- ^ a b c d e f "Spurling, Sir John (Damian)", Who's Who (online ed., Oxford University Press, December 2018). Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ Armand Mattelart, Transnationals and the Third World: The Struggle for Culture (1986), p. 52.
- ^ a b c d e Widget Finn, "Starting out", The Daily Telegraph, 6 December 2004. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ See also "GE Capital shake-up", The Times, 28 January 1999, p. 32.
- ^ "OBE civil (K – Z)", BBC News, 31 December 1999. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
- ^ The London Gazette, 13 September 2012 (supplement 60267), p. 17565.