Clarendum Consulting
Ian McPhee, Founder of Clarendum Consulting and former VP of Operations at Optum Behavioural Care
Operator first. Consultant second.

Ian McPhee

Founder, Clarendum Consulting Ltd

Ian McPhee is a healthcare operator with more than 15 years of experience leading growth, operations, patient access, and service delivery across the United Kingdom and United States.

Most recently, Ian served as Vice President of Operations at Optum Behavioural Care, part of United Health Group, where he led operations across a national network of 236 clinics and telehealth services serving patients in all 50 states. His experience spans behavioural health, digital health, private healthcare, and founder-led healthcare organisations navigating growth and change.

Clarendum was created to give healthcare founders, leadership teams, and investors direct access to that kind of operating experience — applied to decisions about growth, expansion, service design, and execution.

Ian's LinkedIn profile →Companies House record →
About Clarendum

A new firm, deliberately built around senior operating experience.

Clarendum is not a large consultancy and is not trying to become one. Clients are buying direct access to a senior healthcare operator, without the layers, overhead or junior delivery teams that usually come with consulting.

What Clarendum is
Clarendum Consulting Ltd, a UK-registered healthcare and operations advisory practice led personally by its founder.
Company status
Private company limited by shares, registered in England and Wales, company number 17223048.
Registered office
44 Maxwell Road, PO4 9DP, United Kingdom
Who leads the work
Ian McPhee. Every engagement is scoped and delivered by him, with no junior consulting team.
Where it operates
United Kingdom and United States, including organisations expanding between the two systems.
What it does
Commercial growth, patient access, healthcare operations and service design, market entry, and operational due diligence.
Who it helps
Healthcare and healthtech founders, private and behavioural health providers, PE-backed and founder-led healthcare businesses, and investors.
How to engage
A 30-minute introductory call, followed by a scoped proposal with deliverables, timeline and fee.
Clarendum's track record

A newly established practice.

Clarendum Consulting Ltd is a new company. Client engagements are treated as confidential and will only ever be published here with the client's written permission. You will not find invented case studies, borrowed logos or claimed results on this website.

The founder's operating experience

Fifteen years inside healthcare operations.

What you are buying is Ian's operating record, built in executive roles at other organisations. Those achievements belong to his previous employers, not to Clarendum, and those employers were never Clarendum clients. They are shown below because they are the evidence behind the advice.

Experience & Impact

The work behind the advice.

Clarendum is a newly established consultancy built on senior operating experience. The examples below reflect work delivered by our founder in previous executive roles, not Clarendum client engagements. Clarendum client work is treated confidentially and will only be published with permission.

Prior operating role

Running operations for a national behavioural health network

Challenge
A large behavioural health network needed operations that could support clinic and telehealth delivery across the whole of the United States, not just in individual markets.
Scale
236 clinics and telehealth services reaching patients in all 50 states.
What Ian led
Operations as Vice President of Operations at Optum Behavioural Care, part of United Health Group.
Outcome
A national operating function covering in-person and virtual delivery, with standard ways of working across a very large footprint.
Relevant capability
Multi-site and telehealth operations, operating model design, operational governance at scale.

Previous executive role. Not a Clarendum client engagement.

Prior operating role

Building a patient access organisation from the ground up

Challenge
Demand was arriving faster than it was being converted into booked, attended care, which capped growth regardless of marketing spend.
Scale
A patient access organisation of more than 150 people.
What Ian led
Design, build and scaling of the access function, including intake, triage, booking and access performance measurement.
Outcome
A dedicated access organisation that owned the enquiry-to-appointment journey as a measured commercial function rather than administration.
Relevant capability
Patient access design, intake and triage, capacity and demand matching, access metrics.

Previous executive role. Not a Clarendum client engagement.

Prior operating role

Leading international expansion for a specialist provider

Challenge
A boutique behavioural health provider wanted to serve clients across more than one healthcare system without diluting a premium, highly confidential service model.
Scale
Expansion activity across the United Kingdom, United States and Canada.
What Ian led
International expansion, including market approach, operating model and delivery design across jurisdictions.
Outcome
Service delivery extended across multiple countries while protecting the privacy and continuity of care the model depended on.
Relevant capability
Cross-border market entry, operating model design, premium and private-pay service delivery.

Previous executive role. Not a Clarendum client engagement.

Prior operating role

Service redesign and digital transformation

Challenge
Services designed for one volume and one channel struggled once growth, digital delivery and new pathways were introduced.
Scale
Enterprise and growth-stage healthcare organisations in the UK and US.
What Ian led
Service redesign, digital transformation and operational improvement programmes.
Outcome
Redesigned pathways and workflows built to hold up as volume, channels and clinical complexity increased.
Relevant capability
Service design, workflow and pathway redesign, digital operations, operational improvement.

Previous executive role. Not a Clarendum client engagement.

How I typically help

Areas where I can add the most value.

• Growth strategy for healthcare services

• Patient acquisition and referral pathways

• Clinician capacity and utilisation optimisation

• Data-driven operational performance

• Building scalable service infrastructure

"I am most interested in opportunities where better patient experiences and stronger commercial performance reinforce one another. The best healthcare organisations recognise that growth, access, and quality are not competing priorities. They are outcomes of the same system."
Approach

Senior judgement. Clear thinking. Plans that get delivered.

Every engagement combines strategic clarity with operational realism. Healthcare strategy is only valuable if it can actually be delivered.

Clients work directly with Ian throughout. No junior teams, no generic frameworks, and no recommendations disconnected from operational reality. Just senior healthcare expertise applied to the decisions that matter most.

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