ClearView Healthcare Partners

ClearView Healthcare Partners is one of the world’s top boutique life sciences consulting firms. ClearView was founded in 2007 by Richard Mynahan (ex-Leerink Swann, ex-Strategic Decisions Group), Steven Chao (ex-Leerink Swann and ex-McKinsey), and Kevin Richard (ex-Leerink Swann). The founders aimed to develop a leading strategy firm focused exclusively on life sciences. Today, the firm prides itself on “representing a higher standard” and delivering “exceptional project experience” by “living and breathing the life sciences.” Given the firm’s specialization, more than half of all ClearView Healthcare Partners consultants have a life sciences PhD.

In this article, we’re spilling all the beans on ClearView – from salary to careers to interviews and everything in between.

Table of Contents:

1. Overview
2. Key Stats
3. History
4. Clearview Healthcare Partners Careers
5. Practice Areas
6. Example Engagements
7. ClearView Healthcare Partners Offices
8. Career Path
9. Exit Opportunities
10. Awards
11. Target Schools
12. Diversity Programs
13. ClearView Healthcare Partners Internship
14. Clearview Healthcare Partners Culture
15. ClearView Healthcare Partners Case Interview
16. ClearView Healthcare Partners Salary

Overview

ClearView Healthcare Partners primarily advises life sciences clients on growth-strategy issues, including asset strategy, market entry, marketing, pricing, and market access. These strategy projects can range across multiple dimensions, e.g., therapeutic areas, lifecycle stages, geographies. The growth strategy focus is especially important if you are more interested in working on “big picture” issues rather than operational improvements (e.g., cost rationalization, headcount reductions) and other strategic areas (e.g., research and development). Within life sciences, ClearView Healthcare Partners segments its clients into four main groups:

• Pharmaceuticals
• Biotechnology
• Medical devices
• Diagnostic clients

In the 2022 Vault Consulting 50, ClearView Healthcare Partners was ranked #17 overall, which is a drop from its #7 ranking in 2021. Vault ranked the firm as the 4th best healthcare consulting firm, with McKinsey, BCG, and ZS Associates taking the 1-3 spots, respectively. Check out the firm profiles for McKinsey, BCG, and ZS Associates and compare them to what you’re learning here about ClearView Healthcare Partners.

Compared to a McKinsey or a BCG, ClearView Healthcare Partners’ projects have a narrower scope. For example, within healthcare, ClearView Healthcare Partners only serves life sciences companies (versus the full range of healthcare companies). Further, ClearView Healthcare Partners focuses on growth strategy issues, compared to the full-range of topics that MBB may focus on (e.g., research and development, operations). As such, junior level consultants at ClearView Healthcare Partners may have less of an opportunity to take a random walk and identify their areas of interest. On the other hand, junior level consultants at ClearVIew Healthcare Partners have more “guarantee” over the type of work they will be focused on. This is a contrast from bigger firms like McKinsey and BCG where it may take more networking chops (and a bit of luck!) to end up on projects that you are more passionate about.

In July 2021, Global Healthcare Opportunities (“GHO Capital Partners”) invested in ClearView Healthcare Partners via a recapitalization. GHO Capital Partners committed to working with existing management to fuel company growth. As such, ClearView Healthcare Partners may be a good fit if you exude passion for life sciences and want to exclusively focus your career there.

Clearview Healthcare Partners Key Stats

Firm Website: https://clearviewhcp.com/
Firm Headquarters: Newton, Massachusetts
Firm Number of Employees: ~330
Firm Number of Locations: 5
Firm Chief Executives: Founder-led (Richard Mynahan, Steven Chao, Kevin Richard)

Clearview Healthcare Partners History

ClearView Healthcare Partners was founded in 2007. The founders started the company based on a thesis that innovative life sciences firms needed a partner that had deep life sciences knowledge combined with strong analytical skills and business acumen.

This focus on deep subject matter expertise complimented with analytical and business skills is one of ClearView Healthcare Partners’ key differentiators even today. In addition, there were three founding principles for the company that still influence the firm’s ways of working:

1. Clarity
2. Quality
3. Collaboration

Clearview Healthcare Partners Careers

Practice Areas

ClearView Healthcare Partners segments its client work into 5 practice areas.

• Pharma & Biotech
• Medtech & Diagnostics
• Pricing & Market Access
• Advanced Analytics
• Expert Research Solutions

Example Engagements

ClearView Healthcare Partners’ engagements span multiple areas as shown below.

• Corporate Growth & TA Strategy
• Brand Pricing & Access Strategy
• Brand Launch Strategy
• Lifecycle Strategy
• Companion Diagnostic Strategy
• Pipeline Discovery & Development

Example engagements include:

• Supporting a mid-sized specialty pharmaceutical company with a “blue sky” growth and innovation strategy study. The study spanned multiple areas including: prioritizing potential assets to focus on and supporting R&D strategy. More details on the engagement are here.
• Due diligence on a novel drug-device product in CNS. More details on the engagement are here.
• Developing a pricing model and determining market access assumptions for a new biologic product. More details on the engagement are here.

ClearView Healthcare Partners Offices

The ClearView Healthcare Partners headquarters is in Newton, MA (Boston). Additional ClearView offices are in:

• New York City
• San Francisco
• Zurich
• London

The two European offices are newer additions, helping solidify the firm’s global footprint.

Career Path

The ClearView Healthcare Partners career path has seven steps:

1. Analyst – entry level for undergraduate students; masters students may enter at this level, as well
2. Senior analyst
3. Consultant – entry level for graduate students
4. Senior consultant – entry level for graduate students
5. Engagement manager
6. Associate principal
7. Leadership

For more detail on each of the roles, please see the ClearView Healthcare Partners website.

ClearView Healthcare Partners Exit Opportunities

Following a stint at ClearView Healthcare Partners, there are several paths alumni may take. Compared to MBB firms where the exit opportunities span across industries, it is not surprising that the ClearView Healthcare Partners exit opportunities are focused on life sciences. Paths for alumni include:

Business School, e.g.,

• HBS
• Wharton
• Sloan

Medical Programs, e.g.,

• Stanford Medicine
• Harvard Medical School
• Columbia University Medical Center

Roles at life sciences companies, e.g.,

• Genentech
• Takeda
• Shire

Per a Vault survey, the exit opportunities are particularly strong in industry. While you may see similar types of exit opportunities across top-tier generalist consulting firms (e.g., MBB), it may be harder to get the same caliber of life-science exits from implementation-focused, generalist consulting firms (e.g., IBM).

However, if your goal is to pivot to a non-healthcare related position, the transition from ClearView Healthcare Partners may be tough, unless you go to business school.

Target Schools

Firm target schools include:

• University of Pennsylvania
• Duke
• Harvard
• Columbia
• Brown
• Cornell
• Berkeley
• Yale
• Dartmouth
• MIT

Diversity Programs

ClearView Healthcare Partners has several diversity, equity, and inclusion communities including:

• Women LEAD
• OUT for Clearview
• MOSAIC (racial and ethnic diversity)
• Family sustainability forum

Per a Vault survey, leadership has taken a renewed focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion. For example, leadership re-evaluated its approach to hire candidates and developed an action plan to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion, in conjunction with an external consultant.

ClearView Healthcare Partners Internship

The ClearView Healthcare Partners Internship is limited to undergraduate students. During the summer program, interns will first and foremost receive training on the life sciences industry and technical skills, namely commercial-centric analytical skills. Similar to top tier consulting firms, interns at ClearView are given small pieces of engagements to own and drive forward. This is crucial to understanding what it will be like to be a full-time associate. Finally, similar to other consulting programs, the ClearView internship program is a funnel into full-time positions.

While the internship experience is targeted to undergraduate students, advanced degree candidates can attend a three-day “Connect to ClearView” program. The program is designed to simulate what a real day in the life of a consultant may look like. For example, during the program, you will walk through an example consulting engagement.

Clearview Healthcare Partners Culture

ClearView Healthcare Partners’ culture is centered around its core values. Additional aspects of ClearView’s culture include:

• Meritocracy, e.g., promotion schedule dictated primarily by performance rather than fixed times you need to stay at each level
• Focus on professional development, e.g., with case-based onboarding and mentorship programs
• Intelligent, motivated colleagues
• Demanding workplace environment, e.g., long hours

ClearView Healthcare Partners Case Interview

Similar to other firms’ case interviews, the case interview for ClearView Healthcare Partners is designed to test your problem solving skills and ability to break down a complex problem into distinct pieces. As such, you will need the basics of how to understand and structure a case down, before interviewing at the firm. See here for Management Consulted’s full guide on how to crack a case.

However, unlike other generalist firms, ClearView Healthcare Partners focuses its cases on the life sciences industry and may ask technical questions. These questions are designed to test your critical thinking skills and the process you would take to break down a highly-technical, scientific problem. These questions are also used to weed out candidates that may not have sufficient scientific skills to be reputable to clients. Example scientific questions include:

• Recommending what treatment settings to target based on the drug’s mechanism of action.
• Identifying the number of patients that can be candidates for a client’s pharmaceutical products, given overall disease incidence.

There are example ClearView Healthcare Partners cases available. Check those out here.

ClearView Healthcare Partners Salary

The ClearView Healthcare Partners salary is less than the salary levels at top MBB consulting firms. Despite lower entry salary ranges, Vault notes that the salary increases steeply over time.

Typical entry salary ranges for ClearView Healthcare Partners are:

Undergraduate/Master’s Consultant Salary

• Base: $85,000
• Performance Bonus: up to $10,000
• Total Cash: up to $95,000
• PTO Vacation: 15 days
• Relocation: up to $2,500
• Signing Bonus: $7,500

Incoming MBA/PHD Consultant Salary

• Base: $115,000
• Performance Bonus: up to $17,500
• Total Cash: up to $132,500
• PTO Vacation: 15 days
• Relocation: up to $2,500
• Retirement: 2.5% match of base salary
• Signing Bonus: $2,500

However, it is unclear how the salary ranges will evolve, especially given the especially tight labor markets and focus on securing top talent (versus tech-focused healthcare companies). Interested in learning what MBB or other boutique firms are paying? See the full list of consulting firm salaries in our salaries guide.

Conclusion

As such, ClearView Healthcare Partners is a good fit if you are passionate about life sciences and interested in exiting to grad school or a life sciences-focused company. The firm is also a great fit if you are looking for more growth-oriented versus operationally-focused engagements.

Key limitations on the firm include:

• Smaller geographic footprint
• Limited opportunities to take a random walk
• Slightly below street pay
• Long hours – however, this is par for the course especially amongst the top consulting firms

Are you prepping for an interview with ClearView Healthcare Partners? Getting 1:1 coaching with ex-MBB consultants can make the difference! See the details for expert coaching here.

 

Additional Resources:

• Top 25 Consulting Firms
• Top 10 Boutique Consulting Firms in US
• Consulting Resume: Complete Guide
• Case Interview: Complete Prep Guide