Celebrating Success: The team driving Optimal Clinical Trials

Combining business and medicine has been a natural fit for doctors Barney and Penny Montgomery, founders of the award-winning research company Optimal Clinical Trials. The couple met at medical school in Dunedin and started their first business in London, recruiting medical staff in Harley Street. Returning to New Zealand, an opportunity arose to run a clinical trial for a pain medication. That was the beginnings of a business that today employs 80 staff, has featured multiple times in the Deloitte Fast 50, scooped the top prizes at the Westpac and 2 Degrees Auckland Business Awards and most importantly for its founders Barney and Penny, improves the lives of patients around the world.

Optimal Clinical Trials launched from humble beginnings in 2012 – as Barney explains “we had a tiny office in Mt Eden in Auckland, where we had to whisper behind office partitions to ensure patient confidentiality.”

Now working with the world’s biggest pharmaceutical and biotech companies, Optimal is New Zealand’s largest outpatient research company contributing to the development of numerous vaccines including Covid 19, RSV, influenza, and medications for multiple sclerosis, obesity and rheumatoid arthritis among others, and is often the top recruiter in APAC and globally. They recently ranked top recruiter in the APAC region for a trial on combining a new COVID and Flu vaccine and another focused on urinary tract infections for over 60’s.

“The company has grown over the years, but we’ve maintained the central purpose to provide an outstanding research experience for our stakeholders – our patients, our clients and our team. We exist to improve patients’ lives now and in the future. It’s very much the same premise as why we wanted to be doctors, to help people, only in a different way and on a large scale.”

Barney says there’s been huge “learns” over the years, with a focus on implementing those learnings back in the business.

“I love reading books and applying the principles to our business. Jim Collin’s book Good to Great is a favourite. I also did the Icehouse Owner Manager Programme - I got so much out of that course. I was fascinated by looking deeply into other people’s businesses and learning from it - things that went well for them and things that didn’t go well. There were so many great lessons, and it really helped us make some good decisions afterwards. I did it at the right time and tried to implement as much as possible back into our business. The Icehouse really helped with our growth trajectory.”

The decision to enter The Deloitte Fast 50 allowed external validation for the entire team. The first winning entry came in 2016 - just three years after start-up, followed by 2023 and 2024.

Optimal Clinical Trials celebrating one of their recent business awards wins

Barney says much of their success can be put down to disciplined execution of ideas with an aligned senior team.

“It’s been much like the Jim Collin’s idea of the flywheel effect where lots of small decisions have to happen in the right sequence for success. We’ve been blessed to have alignment in the senior leadership team and if we don’t have alignment for one reason or another, we have the trust amongst us to have robust conversations to get on the same page.”

Co-founder Penny is Optimal’s medical director and Barney has appreciated her “rock solid engagement through all the up’s and down’s of the business”. Shareholder and General ManagerLiz Smaill joined the business in 2015.

“Liz was in our medical class at Otago and we are so fortunate to have her with us in the business.”

The pandemic has given the medical research and clinical trials industry a boost with heightened awareness of the importance of trials.

“If you’d had a conversation with someone in 2019 about new medicines, they might have been vaguely interested but after Covid people could truly understand the importance of medical trials.”

Optimal’s research focuses on later phase research.This means, Optimal usually conducts studies in patients who have the condition, for example rheumatoid arthritis . However, Optimal is especially good and well known for conducting large scale vaccine studies often being the global leader for recruitment targets.

“The motivation for most people to participate in a research study is altruism, doing it to help others and some are hoping to get benefits themselves. Others are interested in the medical point of view and a few are doing it for the financial benefits.”

While the shape of the business has changed since those humble beginnings, for Barney and Penny the mission hasn’t changed.

“As doctors, it’s a great thing to be doing because we know research is so important. The people who come on our trials have the chance to benefit and we know we’re making a difference to patients’ lives around the globe.”

And what does the summer hold for Barney and Penny and their three children?

“We’ll be spending time in Kinloch, out on the lake, mountain-biking, running, tennis, golf – we’ll be out and about everyday, that’s how we like to roll.”

To learn more about the Owner Manager Programme, click here.