Origin welcomes former Mercer chief as strategic adviser

Origin has appointed former Mercer Chief Executive Officer Martine Ferland as an angel investor and strategic adviser, adding a senior figure in global benefits consulting to its investor and advisory ranks.

Ferland brings more than 40 years of experience in benefits and human resources consulting, including five years leading Mercer. She also serves on the boards of WSP Global and the Adecco Group.

Her relationship with Origin's founders predates the appointment. She knew Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Chris Bruce and Co-founder Pete Craghill from their time at Darwin, the benefits technology company they founded and led before Mercer acquired it.

Origin provides benefits management software for large employers. Many organisations still manage employee benefits without a dedicated platform, even though benefits are typically one of the biggest people-related costs after pay.

Its system is designed to give global benefits teams a central view of benefit plans, costs, suppliers and country-level arrangements. It also offers analysis to identify overspending, compliance issues and missed savings, alongside workflow tools for renewals, compliance and supplier management.

Ferland's arrival comes as Origin looks to expand after raising more than USD $50 million from investors including Notion Capital, Felix Capital and Acadian Ventures. The company is nearing 40 multinational clients.

Industry backing

The appointment gives Origin an adviser with direct experience of the market it is targeting. Mercer is one of the largest consulting firms in the human resources sector, and Ferland's background spans both client work and senior leadership.

In her first public comments since joining, she highlighted the long-running operational burden of managing benefits across multiple countries.

"Early in my career, one of my largest financial services clients asked me to document and rationalize their benefits across 120 countries. We did it by hand. It took the better part of two years, and by the time we finished, it needed doing again," said Martine Ferland, Strategic Adviser and Angel Investor at Origin.

"That problem never got solved in the four decades since. When I started discussing with Chris what he and Pete are building at Origin, I could not find a more natural application of AI anywhere," she said.

Her comments reflect a broader issue in multinational benefits administration: data is often dispersed across countries, local providers and internal teams. That can make it difficult for companies to compare plans, track costs and apply common governance standards.

Growth plans

Origin is part of a newer group of companies applying artificial intelligence and structured data tools to corporate benefits operations. It positions itself as infrastructure for benefits teams rather than a point product for a single task.

Ferland described her role as helping test the company's strategy and support its development.

"Origin is infrastructure rather than another tool," she said.

"My job now is to be useful: stress test the growth plan, share my perspectives, and support the team as they build a community excited about using AI to transform the value delivered by their benefit programs."

Bruce said the company expects to draw on Ferland's experience as it broadens its reach in the benefits market. He linked her appointment to Origin's efforts to deepen product links with human capital management systems and expand relationships across the wider benefits sector.

"Martine is one of the most credible figures in our industry, and she has lived this problem from every side of it," said Chris Bruce, co-founder and chief executive officer at Origin.

"Her counsel will be invaluable as we scale the platform, deepen our HCM integrations, and grow our ecosystem of brokers, consultants, insurers, and point solutions."

The hire also reflects a wider race among technology providers and advisers to bring more structure to employee benefits data, an area that has often remained fragmented even as payroll, finance, and workforce systems have become more standardised. For companies operating in dozens of jurisdictions, benefits often involve a patchwork of insurers, local rules and renewal timetables that is difficult to monitor centrally.

That complexity has created an opening for software groups serving large employers with cross-border workforces. Origin's latest appointment suggests it sees experienced sector operators as important not only for client credibility but also for shaping how newer technology is adopted in a conservative part of the corporate services market.

Since emerging from stealth, the company has raised more than USD $50 million and built a client base of nearly 40 multinational companies.