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 Huddersfield is a market town in the Kirklees district in West Yorkshire, England. It is the administrative centre and largest settlement in the Kirklees district. The town is in the foothills of the Pennines. The River Holme's confluence into ...

Richard Harpin, the home emergencies expert who commutes by helicopter
Independent, 25 March 2006 and educated at the

Royal Grammar School, Newcastle (By Learning, You Will Lead) , established = , closed = , type = Grammar SchoolIndependent day school , religion = , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Geoffrey Stanford , r_head_label = , r_head = , chair_label = , cha ...

, before going on to the University of York.Richard Harpin: Rich List Profiles
Birmingham Post, 14 January 2008

Career

Harpin joined

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer he ...

in 1986 to pursue a marketing career. He worked at Procter & Gamble until 1990 before joining

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

as a

management consultant Management consulting is the practice of providing consulting services to organizations to improve their performance or in any way to assist in achieving organizational objectives. Organizations may draw upon the services of management consultants ...

HomeServe

In 1993 Harpin and Jeremy Middleton established HomeServe as a joint venture with

South Staffordshire Water South Staffordshire Water plc known as South Staffs Water is a UK water supply company owned by a privately owned utilities company serving parts of Staffordshire the West Midlands as well as small areas of surrounding counties in England. Sout ...

and built it into one of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

's largest home emergency businesses. It has since expanded into France in a joint venture with

Veolia Veolia Environnement S.A., branded as Veolia, is a French transnational company with activities in three main service and utility areas traditionally managed by public authorities – water management, waste management and energy services. It pr ...

, the USA and Spain. In February 2014, HomeServe was fined a record £30.6 million for mis-selling insurance policies and mishandling customer complaints. In 2017, HomeServe acquired 100% of Checkatrade and in 2019, acquired the Spanish business Habitissimo. Harpin holds 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 Sara Davies (born 23 April 1984) is a British businesswoman, entrepreneur, and television personality. She is the founder and owner of Crafter's Companion, a company she started while a student at the University of York. In April 2019 it wa ...

MBE, Iguana Developments and Keelham Farm Shop. He is a member of the

Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network The Apprenticeship Ambassadors Network is an employer-led body sponsored by the Skills Funding Agency in England. Its remit is to encourage more employers to become involved in apprenticeships in England. The Network is the successor body to the A ...

. In 2013, Harpin and his wife bought their village pub, The Alice Hawthorn Inn in

Nun Monkton Nun Monkton is a village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of York at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Nidd. Cottages and houses are grouped around a village green of with ...

, 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.

Political activity

Harpin is a Conservative Party donor.

Personal life

He is married to Kate and together they have one daughter and two sons. He lives near

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

and uses a

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

to commute to work in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

. In 2021, the Sunday Times Rich List estimated his net worth at £627 million.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harpin, Richard 1964 births English businesspeople Living people Alumni of the University of York Conservative Party (UK) donors