Personal Profile

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Jim Searle is Chief Operating Officer WPA, one of the UK’s leading specialist health insurers. He joined WPA in Mar 2017 and has led the development and implementation of the company’s digitalisation, automation and cyber security strategy.
Over the past three years, Jim has also led WPA’s growing focus on artificial intelligence and intelligent automation. WPA was an early adopter of sovereign AI, investing in its own on-premise AI infrastructure and developing its Lucerna family of models. This work has expanded into the development of Pharos, WPA’s AI-enabled software engineering and code intelligence platform, and Atlas, its framework for applying AI and agentic automation to operational processes across the business. The programme is increasingly focused on how organisations can move AI beyond experimentation and embed it safely and productively into core business operations.
Before joining WPA, Jim was a Partner at Control Risks and spent six years living and working in Baghdad. He began his career as a Second Lieutenant with the 1st Battalion, The Green Howards, before serving in a number of roles with the Intelligence Corps. Following four operational tours, he left the Army and moved into defence consultancy, specialising in Counter-IED and ISTAR programme management.
Jim is a graduate of Aberystwyth University, where he studied International Politics and International History, and the London School of Economics, where he was awarded a Master’s degree in Russian Politics and History.
Outside work, Jim is a keen skier and mountain biker, and a regular at Kingsholm supporting Gloucester Rugby.