Henry Otto Brünjes (born 15 October 1954) is a physician and founder of the Premier Medical Group. He has been a fellow and governor of the

Expert Witness Institute The Expert Witness Institute is a UK legal institute for expert witnesses founded by Lord Woolf, Michael Davies (judge) and other legal experts including Sir Robin Jacob and Roger V Clements. It was incorporated as a non-profit making company in 1 ...

since 2002, a Fellow of the Woodard Corporation since 2004, and a founding fellow and vice-president of

The College of Medicine The College of Medicine (CoM) is a United Kingdom-based organisation founded in October 2010 that grew out of The Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health after it was shut down due to accounting fraud. It is chaired by Michael Dixon, a former d ...

(2009).College of Medicine Financial Accounts 2016
p12 He was chairman of Rapid Trauma and Assessment (2000–06), the Personal Injury Forum of Bupa (2004–07) and Newmans Clinics (2011–). He was made chairman of the

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is a British opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in E ...

in 2015.

Early life, education, and family

Brünjes was born in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

on 15 October 1954 and grew up around Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. He is the son of Harry Brünjes of The Singing Scott Brothers, who went on to become a headmaster at Alameda School. His mother was also a teacher. He was educated at

Bedford Modern School Bedford Modern School (often called BMS or simply Modern) is a Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference independent school in Bedford, England. The school has its origins in Bedford Charity, The Harpur Trust, born from the financial endowme ...

St Thomas's Hospital Medical School St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in London was one of the oldest and most prestigious medical schools in the UK. The school was absorbed to form part of GKT School of Medical Education. History It was part of one of the oldest hospitals in ...

and

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital founded by philanthropist Thomas Guy in 1721, located in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the Kin ...

Medical School. During his university career Brünjes worked as a professional pianist and television actor but abandoned entertainment to concentrate on medicine. Brünjes is married to the singer, dancer, choreographer and director Jacqueline Storey. They met while performing together at a show in Newquay. The couple have four children. Emma Brunjes is his daughter. Brünjes and his wife live at Folkington Manor. The couple bought the historic house, a Grade II listed property, in 2010 and then carried out a multi-million pound restoration. The house was opened for public tours in 2014. Brünjes and his wife have restored numerous other properties including

Ovingdean Grange Ovingdean Grange is a Grade II listed manor house situated on the south coast of England in the village of Ovingdean, east of Brighton. One of the oldest and most historical residences in Brighton, it gave its name to the novel ''Ovingdean Gran ...

Career

Brünjes joined the Rottingdean practice in East Sussex in 1985. He became a senior partner after five years. In 1984 Brunjes was one of the junior hospital doctors in Casualty in the

Royal Sussex County Hospital The Royal Sussex County Hospital is an acute teaching hospital in Brighton, England. Together with the Princess Royal Hospital, it is administered by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust. The services provided at the hospital inc ...

, Brighton on the night of the Grand Hotel IRA bomb blast. In 1995, Brünjes founded what would become Premier Medical Group after working in the NHS for 14 years. He founded Premier after noticing an increasingly large number of patients willing to pay for private healthcare. The practice started in a small office on Harley Street and took on the Premier Medical name in 1996. Brünjes started hiring additional doctors into his practice the same year. Premier continued to expand operations as sales grew. Speaking of the time Brünjes said, "It was a stretch financially. I took out loans with the banks and had my house on the line." In 2003, Jason Powell, head of innovation for Bupa, joined Premier as CEO. Brünjes worked with Powell to develop a strategy for further expansion through acquisitions instead of focusing on organic growth. Many of Premier's smaller acquisitions were funded via cash flow. In 2008, Brünjes led Premier's acquisition of Medico-Legal Reporting, a rival firm, with financing from the investment bank Nomura. Under his leadership the firm expanded to run 220 clinics across the United Kingdom. The business was sold in 2010 to

Capita Capita plc is an international business process outsourcing and professional services company headquartered in London. It is the largest business process outsourcing and professional services company in the United Kingdom, with an overall ma ...

for £60 million; Brünjes remained as non-executive chairman after the sale. After the sale of Premier, Brünjes started work on other business opportunities including real estate. Prior to the sale of Premier, he had already spent 13 years restoring a listed manor house; he sold the house to comedian Steve Coogan for £2.4 million. In 2011, Brünjes established Woodsta, a venture capital fund specialising in healthcare. Woodsta acquired Dr Newman's Clinic, which specialises in treating thread veins. Brünjes immediately moved to expand Dr Newman's across the United Kingdom. Brünjes has expressed interest in investing in obesity and elderly care related ventures. Brünjes bought a controlling share of Premier Medical back from Capita in 2016. Capita retained some equity in Premier but has no operational control. Brünjes is working to expand the firm with a particular emphasis on the personal injury market. Since 2015 Brunjes has been Chairman of WARP, a medical software technology company. In recent years Brunjes has performed in a docudrama 'Dial Medicine for Murder'. This has involved two seasons at The Gilded Balloon at the Edinburgh Festival and a national tour. Brünjes is a regular writer, broadcaster, and lecturer.

Non-profit work

Since 2015, Brünjes has been chairman of

(ENO). Brünjes was appointed to this position after the resignation of Martyn Rose. Brünjes had previously served on the ENO's board as a non-executive trustee for five years. Since 2012 he has been a member of the

Southwark Cathedral Southwark Cathedral ( ), formally the Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, is a Church of England cathedral in Southwark, London, near the south bank of the River Thames and close to London Bridge. It is the mother c ...

Development Trust. He was Chairman of

Lancing College Lancing College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school) for pupils aged 13–18 in southern England, UK. The school is located in West S ...

from 2009 to 2019 and was previously a governor of

(2004–07). Brünjes has been a fellow and governor of the

since 2002, a fellow of the Woodard Corporation since 2004, a founding fellow of

(2009) and a former vice-president.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brunjes, Harry 1954 births British businesspeople People educated at Bedford Modern School Living people British businesspeople in the healthcare industry Alumni of St Thomas's Hospital Medical School Medical doctors from Norwich Commanders of the Order of the British Empire