The Prax Group’s commitment to operating like a family was more than a platitude; it was a foundational philosophy that scaled the company to become one of the largest private energy providers in the UK. Arani Kumar Soosaipillai, co-founder and Chief Human Resources and Corporate Officer, is the executive most directly responsible for making that philosophy operational.
Arani oversaw the HR strategy at the Prax Group. The question of what “family culture” actually looks like inside an organisation of that size is one she has had to answer not philosophically, but practically.
Relationships as a foundational principle
Arani’s stated convictions about work are grounded in the relational.
“Relationships matter,” she has said plainly. “Success is rarely a solo effort. Building strong relationships, whether with colleagues or mentors, has been invaluable.”
In an industry not typically associated with warmth as a management value, this emphasis on connection sits alongside her equally direct view on resilience: “Setbacks are inevitable, but how you respond to them defines your path forward.”
Those two positions, that relationships are central and that difficulty is inevitable, shape a particular approach to managing people. It means prioritising psychological safety not as an HR abstraction but as a practical prerequisite for performance. Prax has trained Mental Health First Aiders across several UK locations, created internal employee assistance resources, and developed communications explicitly reminding staff, “You do not need to suffer in silence.” The provision of those resources reflects a deliberate decision made by someone who believes that well-being and output are not in tension with each other.
Building structures that carry the culture
A family atmosphere is relatively easy to maintain in a team of ten. Sustaining it across refineries, fuel stations, trading desks, and logistics operations across multiple countries requires something more architectural, and Arani’s HR function has developed formal structures. PraxAcademy, launched in 2025 as a company-wide learning management system, gave every employee access to a standardised development offer regardless of their location or seniority. It is precisely the kind of infrastructure that bridges the gap between a stated value (“we invest in our people”) and an experienced reality.
The Prax Group’s apprenticeship programme at Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery, reflected the same logic. Bringing apprentices into the fold and developing them over multi-year pathways was not incidental, but evidence of what the stated value actually committed the business to doing.
Scaling without losing the thread
The tension between family ethos and corporate scale is one Arani and Sanjeev both acknowledged. In the 20th anniversary issue of the company’s internal magazine, they wrote to staff: “We recognise that the transition from a smaller family-owned business to a larger corporate organisation can take some getting used to.” That candour, naming the tension rather than pretending it does not exist, is itself consistent with the culture they describe.
External perception matching internal intention is not always guaranteed as companies grow. That it has, at least in part, reflects the durability of what Arani has built.
Learning as a continuous commitment
Arani has also spoken about her own relationship to development, describing how her experiences have reinforced “the importance of continuous learning, staying humble and always being open to evolving.” That posture, curiosity rather than certainty, permeated the training philosophy she developed at Prax. Learning at Work Week, an annual UK-wide campaign highlighting the importance of workplace learning and development, saw senior leadership including the co-founders share lessons from their own careers directly with staff. It was a small gesture, but a telling one: the people at the top of the organisation participating in the same development culture they ask everyone else to embrace.
For Arani Kumar Soosaipillai, a company’s relationship with its people is not a soft variable on the edge of the business. It is, by her account, the thing the business is made of.
