Award winning serial entrepreneur Kate Bleasdale, the driving force behind the rise and rise of Healthcare Locums, has been described in many ways. Among the labels the press has attached to the ex-nurse originally from Bolton have been “maverick” and “the excitable Miss Bleasdale”. But in an action-packed career, during which she suffered the barbs of publicity after receiving a £2.2m out of court settlement in a sexual harassment case, followed by a successful return to the staffing industry with HCL, what other people think of her seems the last thing on Bleasdale’s mind.

“I am as I am and people have strong views. They either like me or they don’t, but that is irrelevant as long as my family and my friends love me, which they do,” she says, sitting in the boardroom of HCL’s London base. And if truth be told, in these troubled economic times, Bleasdale
is probably the last recruiter in need of having her ego boosted. After growing several healthcare staffing companies from a standing start into successful entities, Bleasdale’s career continues to reach new heights. HCL is expected to achieve record pre-tax profits of £18.2m in 2008 on revenue of around £180m.

Buoyed by the increasing number of elderly people around the world, and the continuing shortage of healthcare professions such as doctors, social workers and allied health professionals, HCL’s expansion looks certain to continue. Feted in the City, it grew by 47% in the second half of last year. In the past 12 months HCL’s share price has outperformed the FTSE All Share by 90%.

It’s all a far cry from Bleasdale’s early career as a nurse in London. That said, the 18 months Bleasdale spent as senior nurse provided her with the perfect grounding for her subsequent career.

“I spent most of my time ringing up agencies trying to find staff and even when they did turn up they were often of such poor quality I had to send them back home,” she recalls. Three months later Bleasdale was sitting in an office with a telephone in Wandsworth. “With my experience from the client side, I knew I could do it a lot better. So I did.”

Bleasdale’s first venture into healthcare staffing was Match Healthcare. For the first four years Bleasdale admits she was earning less than her nanny. But eventually Match was providing staff to 30 NHS Trusts nationwide. In 1996, Bleasdale merged Match with a GP deputising
business, creating Sinclair Montrose, which floated on AIM. Several acquisitions followed, and by 1999 annual turnover had risen to £120m.

In 1999, Bleasdale co-led a public to private management buy-out of Match Group. By the time she left the company in 2001, turnover had soared to £185m, making it the second largest company in the healthcare sector.

Bleasdale won’t be drawn on the sexual harassment case involving Match Group’s chairman Sir Tim Chessells and two other directors, citing “a confidentiality agreement”. However, in an article The Times in July 2004, Bleasdale wrote: “It was all about making sure I could move on with my life.”

After a period away from the industry, the past six years have seen Bleasdale back in a familiar routine, founding HCL and developing it into a £180m turnover business. However, her appetite for growth shows no sign of diminishing. “We have a long way to go,” she says. “Our aim is to get 20% marketshare within the next two years,” although that’s just the short-term goal, she emphasises.

When asked about this seemingly incessant drive for growth, Bleasdale seems incredulous at the naivety of the question. “Why would you want to stand still? It’s only by growing companies and developing them and increasing the drive forward that the company remains. Nobody just wants to sit there and do the same year on year. If they do, they shouldn’t be in business.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly given HCL’s robust share price, Bleasdale is an advocate of the public company model. “Going onto AIM gave us funds so we could complete our acquisition strategy. It enabled us to do 13 strategic acquisitions, ones which we knew were going to do before we set up HCL.”

HCL’s acquisition phase came to an end in April 2007.

“Now it’s all about having our foot on the pedal and delivering strong organic growth,” says Bleasdale.

She is confident that HCL will weather the recession, believing that demand for healthcare staff will continue to grow not only in the UK, but even more so internationally. “The market for healthcare staffing worldwide is just huge. It’s ‘how long is a piece of string’,” she adds.

For Bleasdale, the only thing holding HCL back is the supply of well qualified healthcare staff. That’s why HCL recruits from 65 countries worldwide, something which Bleasdale describes as “a phenomenal operation”.

Bleasdale is keen to laud the part played by HCL’s staff. “You can’t do it in isolation, and we have got the best team of people in the industry.” Indeed all the senior people at HCL have worked with Bleasdale before.

Despite winning her own landmark payout, Bleasdale has never seen herself as a champion of women. “I think women should look after themselves. The bottom line is you are either good at what you do or you are not so good at what you do. I don’t care what sex or age you are.”

Bleasdale says the recruitment industry is “one of the best industries” for women. “It’s all about multi-tasking, holding lots of balls in the air, communication, relationships and delivery.” She points out that two other members of the HCL board are women.

She is uncompromising about what makes an “HCL person”, describing them as “driven, determined, intelligent and the best at what they do”.

Nobody could ever say that Bleasdale herself doesn’t live up to these standards. “I have never had a holiday in 23 years,” she admits. “I go on holiday, but I am never on holiday. I am just in another time zone.”

So what does Bleasdale love about recruitment? “It’s just what I do. It’s my job. I enjoy very much the people I work with. I enjoy knowing the direction we need to go.”

Certainly, Bleasdale seems up for the challenge. “We are creating an international market out of nothing. We are filling demand that has been unfillable before and that’s very exciting because we are the only people who are attacking this market in this way.”

As to her own future and how long she will remain in recruitment, Bleasdale reacts as if the very question has never crossed her mind. “I have got no idea. I am just sticking to the knitting. I have no thoughts about not being here. It’s what I do.”