Fact file:
- Name: Chris Percival
- Job: Founder & CEO of Jigsaw Medical
- Born: Warrington
- Lives: Chester
- Education: Tarporley High School, Fd(Sc) Paramedic Emergency Care at Oxford Brookes University, HCPC Registered Paramedic
- Family: I have a wonderful girlfriend called Sammie who I have been with for five years
No two days are the same, which is why I love my job. Although I mainly work from our head office, I do also regularly visit our locality bases and also work on frontline 999 shifts to keep my own paramedic skills up.
Every morning I will wake up and have a coffee whilst responding to the emails I have received overnight. We operate 24/7 in the UK and also have an office in Sydney, Australia – so I generally get a fair few during the night! After this, at about 8.30am I normally head into our head office in Tarporley to really begin the working day.
I start by saying good morning to everyone and wandering around the office with a cup of tea for half an hour or so – making sure everyone is happy and supporting anyone with any challenges they might have lined up for the day.
Most days I have a couple of meetings, whether internal team meetings or meeting with clients – sometimes these are at our regional offices so it might include a day-trip around the country.
I will take these meetings in between emails and phone conversations which might include speaking to members of our ambulance team who have been to particularly challenging or distressing 999 calls – to see if there is anything we can do as a company to support them further.
It may also include speaking with clients, suppliers or our locality managers. I try to spend as little time as possible locked in my office, I much prefer being in the thick of it with the team.
At lunch I would normally go for a walk to clear my head. Fortunately our head office has its own access road to Portal golf course, so it’s ideal for this.
Providing I’m not doing a 12-hour ambulance shift, I normally leave the office at about 6.30pm, via the train station to pick up my girlfriend (who works as a lawyer in Manchester).
Fridays at Jigsaw House are a bit different, as this is when we have Beer Friday, which is where the team are let loose on our office bar and we reflect on a week (soft drinks for those in uniform or who are driving!).
Do you wear a uniform or anything special to do your job? I am big advocate at Jigsaw House of not wearing traditional office uniform so everyday attire is pretty casual at the office. Obviously when in a clinical setting I have to wear the Jigsaw Ambulance uniform, just like all of our clinical team.
What is the favourite part of your job? Being able to shape and change things much quicker than if you worked for someone else. You can also see something you have founded become the passion of other people – which is amazing. Also #TeamJigsaw are all fantastic to work with so that makes coming to work very easy. There is a sign in the reception of our Head Office which reads: “Choose a job you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”.
What is the least favourite part of your job? I don’t like numbers and I don’t like people saying No.
What would be your dream job if you weren’t doing what you do now? Formula 1 driver
How do you relax when you are not working? I particularly love to eat out with my girlfriend Sammie. Chester has some great independent restaurants and we particularly love it at Luke’s Eating House in Chester, not least because Luke, James and the team there do a great job. I also love travelling and heading away for the weekend. Be it to Palma in Mallorca for some sun or blowing off some steam snowboarding in the Alps. Working hard is fantastic and very rewarding, but you always need some time out!
What is your favourite film? The Wolf of Wall Street.
What is your favourite book? It’s actually a book my friend Lawrence Jones gave to me recently called Built to Last by Jim Collins.
What is your favourite song? Yellow by Coldplay.
If a film was made of your life, who would you like to play you? Tough one but I’d have to go with Chris Pine (we have the same first name!)
Have you had your 15 minutes of fame yet? When I was 10 years old I appeared on the CITV game show Jungle Run (effectively a children’s version of The Crystal Maze). I was also on the television show Vera playing a paramedic, and I was also recently interviewed on stage at the UK Fast campus in Manchester for their #InspireMCR event, of which I believe there is a video circulating the internet.
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