The Success Series: Lynne Hill

It was during her time at the RVC that Lynne decided to complete an MBA. Initially considering a remote course, her boss at the time encouraged her to apply to London Business School. “He said if you’re going to do something, do it with the best, so I did.” Lynne’s desire to complete her MBA came from wanting to learn the theory behind business. “I was doing it, but was I doing it right? Could I do it better?” She discovered that many of the things she’d been doing naturally had some theory behind it, but to her much of this was common sense.

Then as CEO of Langford Veterinary Services, part of the University of Bristol, Lynne quickly recognised where the business was haemorrhaging money and made swift changes to the operating model, transforming the teaching hospital to demonstrate that university veterinary hospitals need not be a financial drain. It was during her time as CEO at Langford that Lynne was approached by Linnaeus to come on board as CEO of the new company being formed. “Friends warned about working with Private Equity; I was told they would suck me dry.”

However, Lynne was ready for a change and the prospect of growing a corporation was very exciting. After considering if she could weather a potential failure financially, once again, she stepped through the open door.

Her early experiences were transformative. “At the first board meeting, we asked for £200k for a property improvement project in the business, something which would have taken six to nine months at the university with no certain outcome. Here it was an immediate yes, here you go.” After that the yesses came thick and fast. “I worked with two or three incredibly supportive and knowledgeable people; they rarely said no to ideas. I would sit in front of bankers and ask for millions, and they’d respond, ‘How much can we give you?’ They really liked our business model.” Also unusually for many private equity firms, Sovereign Capital invested for the future – beyond the time they would own the business, including funding a new £5m hospital.

Despite her incredible success, Lynne maintained her philosophy of doing the right thing. Collaboration was key: 

“It doesn’t matter who you are; if you’re in the hospital you care for the animal to meet its needs, even if its clearing up their mess, or picking up a ringing phone, and talking to the clients – it’s everyone’s job to help make the business a success”.

Lynne’s experiences as a successful female are mixed. She found some places were more egalitarian, but in others, “Women have to fight.” Lynne recognises that people see her a certain way. While she would describe herself as, “Passionate about what I do and what I believe, and someone who questions and challenges,” others might label her, “Extremely strident, very direct, maybe even argumentative.” Lynne recalls in some environments like a university: 

“The men would have a jolly good argument about a point, but if I had the same argument with one of the other women, they would say, ‘There there ladies, calm it down, don’t get so emotional.’ I found that very annoying.” 

Lynne was proud to have strong female representation on her board at Linnaeus. “The vast majority of the executive team was female: HR, operations, marketing, CNO, CMO; which gave the company a different feel.” 

Supporting talent has been hugely rewarding throughout Lynne’s career; “One of the best things is when someone walks into your office and they say, ‘I’ve learnt a lot; I’d really like to stay but I realise there’s nowhere I can go in the company or the practice and I’ve been offered a job at the next level somewhere else.’ For me, that’s a huge pat on the back; I’ve done my job and I hope I’ve been able to do that throughout my whole career.” Unsurprisingly, many students have sought Lynne’s advice over the years and she recalls, “It was maybe eight or ten years later and he told me, ‘Because of you I did go on and did an internship and residency and I’m now a specialist in my field – and I want to thank you.’”