- Source: Richard Harpin
Richard David Harpin (born 1964) is the founder and CEO of Homeserve, an international home repairs and improvements business.
Early life
Harpin was born in Huddersfield and educated at the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle, before going on to the University of York.
Career
Harpin joined Procter & Gamble in 1986 to pursue a marketing career. He worked at Procter & Gamble until 1990 before joining Deloitte as a management consultant.
= HomeServe
=In 1993 Harpin and Jeremy Middleton established HomeServe as a joint venture with South Staffordshire Water and built it into one of the United Kingdom's largest home emergency businesses.
In 2001, HomeServe expanded its reach by introducing Doméo, a joint venture with Veolia in France. In 2004, HomeServe underwent a demerger from South Staffs Water and became publicly listed on the London Stock Exchange.
In early 2023, HomeServe underwent a significant development as it was sold in a take-private deal to the Canadian investment firm Brookfield Asset Management for £4.1 billion. Harpin emphasised Brookfield's role as a "long-term investor in growth," expressing the intention to accelerate expansion and contribute to the decarbonisation agenda. Harpin held a 7.2% stake in HomeServe, with his wife owning 4.7% shareholding. Their combined stake is worth £440 million.
= Investments
=Harpin founded The Enterprise Trust to inspire young people to consider entrepreneurship as a career by creating skills-based apprenticeships and injecting £1 million each year into youth enterprise support.
In 2015, he also founded an investment fund, Growth Partner, that has invested in Crafter's Companion, run by Sara Davies MBE, in clothing business, Passenger, and in Stubble & Co. Harpin believes there is huge potential to scale-up and unlock growth in medium sized British companies and one of the ways he intends to do this is by sharing his business learnings – the eight secrets to building a billion pound business – and supporting other entrepreneurs on their growth journey.
He is a member of the Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network.
In 2013, Harpin and his wife bought their village pub, The Alice Hawthorn Inn in Nun Monkton, to prevent its closure. It won Yorkshire Life magazine's Dining Pub of the Year award in 2017. They also helped revive the Nun Monkton Ferryboat across the River Ouse in 2017 which had been closed since 1952.
In 2023, Richard Harpin acquired Business Leader magazine, including the Business Leader Awards, Scale-Up UK Summit, and Scale-Up awards. In 2024, Business Leader will launch a new peer-to-peer community for founders, entrepreneurs, and CEOs to support growth in the UK’s 110,000 medium sized businesses, helping them to become highly productive large companies.
= Political activity
=Harpin is a Conservative Party donor.
Personal life
Harpin has one daughter and two sons.
In 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £630 million.