John Arthur joins Bourn Hall Clinic as Finance Director

Many people will be considering a career move after lockdown, and John Arthur has seen it as an opportunity to work for an organisation that makes a meaningful difference to people’s lives. He has joined Bourn Hall Clinic, the world’s first IVF clinic, as its Finance Director.

John, who is married with two children, says: “The pandemic brought home to me the importance of family; a number of friends have struggled to conceive, and I have seen the impact this can have on their lives. Being able to have children is something it is easy to take for granted, and I think working for Bourn Hall is a chance to give something back.”

John is a Fellow member of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants and has worked for a diverse range of organisations across different industry sectors, including healthcare consultancy.

From strength-to-strength

He is to replace Simon Barton, who is retiring. Simon has worked at Bourn Hall for nearly 30 years and was one of four directors to be part of a management buyout of Bourn Hall Cambridge from the pharmaceutical organisation Serono in 2005. Bourn Hall has gone from strength to strength since that time, opening full-service clinics in Norwich and Wickford and a number of smaller satellites to enable patients across East Anglia to access fertility treatment closer to their homes.

More recently, Bourn Hall has had an injection of funding from Triangle Healthcare Partners, a Canadian-based investment firm, enabling it to respond to increasing demand for its fertility services since the pandemic.

Dr Mike Macnamee, CEO of Bourn Hall, says: “Simon has been a central member of our management team and has become a close friend. His insight and experience have significantly enhanced Bourn Hall, and I and all the staff will miss him greatly.

“In John we have found someone with equally high ethical standards and technical skill. I look forward to working closely with John to take Bourn Hall to the next level.”

Improving access to treatment

Bourn Hall works in partnership with many parts of the NHS across Bedfordshire, Essex, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, supporting patients at every stage of their fertility journey. Through long-term relationships it has been able to provide excellence in customer care and optimise IVF success rates for NHS funded patients.

John sees many parallels with his previous role as Finance and Operations Director of Thriplow-based Clarion UK, which provides specialist services to deaf and hard-of-hearing people, enabling them to achieve equal access to mainstream services.

He says: “I have previously enjoyed working for organisations that are people-centred. At Clarion UK our main aim was to level the playing field; we were working to provide equal access to communication services for deaf and hard-of-hearing people across healthcare, education, employment and legal environments and providing specialist education support to higher education students with special education needs. Bourn Hall has a similar ethos and makes a real difference to the lives of individuals.

“I think there is potential to improve efficiencies in the system and introduce new technologies that will benefit both patients and staff. I can bring expertise from other sectors to help facilitate this.”