When Val Gooding steps down as chief executive of Bupa at the company’s annual meeting on Thursday, it will mark the end of a 12-year association with the healthcare company she helped turn into a global conglomerate.

The numbers are revealing. Between 1998 – when she took the helm – and 2007, revenue has more than doubled from £1.77bn to £4.25bn while surplus before tax has jumped nearly eightfold from £50m to £440.7m. This is on a par with figures reported by some FTSE 100 companies.