Our Team
William van Niekerk
MB ChB MRCS MSc FCMI FRCS (Plast) RAF (Retd)
Co-Founder and Director
William is a Consultant Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic surgeon based in London. He was born and raised in South Africa and educated in Pretoria, Oxford, London, Glasgow, and Texas. He has a background in major trauma, burn surgery, and microvascular surgery, and practiced in the British National Health Service (NHS) and the British Armed Forces as a consultant plastic surgeon. He served as an officer in the Royal Air Force for a decade and a half during which time he was one of the handful of surgeons responsible for all British Armed Forces casualties at the height of the war in Afghanistan. He also deployed to Afghanistan on a number of occasions, serving there with the British Armed Forces in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. William retired from the RAF and NHS in December 2017 and is now part of one of the highest profile practices in the UK at the Cadogan Clinic in Chelsea. He also operates out of Harley Street, Mayfair, and St John's Wood.
The entrepreneurial spirit runs strongly in William. He is a co-founder of the De Savoye Group which includes De Savoye Medical London. A successful career spanning all three healthcare environments - the NHS, the Armed Forces, and the private healthcare sector - has afforded William a very broad and comprehensive perspective on healthcare in the UK and beyond. The knowledge and connections that come with this perspective have been fundamental in his co-founding of De Savoye.
William is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, a member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgeons (BAPRAS), and a fellow of the Chartered Management Institute.
On the rare occasions that he has some spare time, William enjoys photography, SCUBA diving, and playing the classical guitar. He keeps fit at the gym or on the tennis court. Unrelated to medicine, he also has a deep interest in artificial intelligence, data science, decentralised technologies, and computer programming.
Frederick Christopher F
Co-Founder and Director
Frederick is a seasoned entrepreneur and investor in the Medical, Cosmetics, Software, and Beauty industry, as well as start-up companies in other sectors. He has co-founded and developed a number of private companies that now operate and are recognised globally.
With over 28 years experience in business-to-business information sales and development, Frederick is a confident and outgoing team player, with a strong combination of interpersonal and analytical skills. His belief is that, for a company to succeed, it ultimately boils down to building and nurturing the right connections. As a consequence, Frederick has spent much of the last 30 years building his vast network of personal and business contacts - this has been a key ingredient to his success. Business development is his great passion, and he is always learning and finding ways to work with the best people to develop new concepts and technologies, and to turn ideas into successful companies.
In his spare time Frederick is an enthusiastic cook. He also enjoys hiking and going to the gym, for as the Romans used to say, ‘mens sana in corpore sano’.
Joe Delaney
BSc (Hons) Business Management
Director
Joe has a proven track record of success at the highest levels of business. He has worked in forecasting, cost control, risk management, and profitability, leaving him with skills that he has further fine-tuned and developed over the course of his business career. He has over thirty years of experience and an established reputation in the fields of international finance and property development, both in the private and public sectors.
Joe has an outstanding record of achievement. He is considered to be a skilled negotiator and communicator and is accustomed at locking horns with captains of industry, heads of state, and government ministers. His key skills in the business world are a huge asset to the companies he has represented. He has a reputation for being a straight-talking and honest individual, and for ensuring that the job gets done efficiently and within the desired timelines and financial constraints.
Joe used to to play Gaelic football at a high level. This has instilled a deep love of sport in him. On the rare occasion that he gets a free moment, he enjoys watching sport of almost any kind. He sometimes jokes that he is the only Irishman who understands cricket!
Steve Phillips
HND in Business
Director
Steve was Born in Chester and raised in Ellesmere Port Cheshire, after which he moved to London at the age of 21. Steve has over three decades of experience in a career spanning hotels, hospitality, recruitment, and production management. He has a proven track record in business development, and improving productivity and profit margins.
Steve's varied career has enabled him to fine tune his negotiation and people management skills to an exceptional level. He has helped to develop a diverse spectrum of both struggling and established businesses, to maximise the profitability and growth of these enterprises, and at the same time to attain a balance of efficiency and human capital development. Amongst others, Steve has worked for Greene King, Scottish and Newcastle, and Whitbread, in many cases transforming individual sites from negative to significant profit levels. He was head hunted to work for a major US recruitment company where he was responsible for the development and growth of over 60 branches in the UK.
Steve sees himself as a focused and driven individual, who strives to succeed in everything he does. He finds inspiration in the words of Benjamin Franklin: 'Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning'.
Steve has been a motorcycling enthusiast for over 35 years. He is an Advanced Open Water diver and dives several times a year with his son who is a qualified instructor.
Shay Purcell
MBA (Hons)
European Development Manager
Shay is responsible for coordination and support of the group’s distribution network in Europe.
With over 20 years’ experience working on the international stage, Shay has a proven record for growing markets by working with like-minded business partners.
Shay’s early business career had him working with Waterford Crystal as Quality Manager, and this brought him a broad experience across a number of continents, including Europe, North America, and East Asia. Following this, he was appointed European Business Development Manager for EcoBurner Ltd, where he worked for a number of years. Keeping his feet firmly on Irish soil, Shay then moved on to Universal Graphics Ltd, where he was appointed General Manager.
Shay is an honours MBA graduate from the University of Limerick, and this means that he brings a good blend of practical and academic experience to any project to make things happen.