Matt Muscio spent his executive years building and selling medical technology businesses across Australasia. Now he is applying that experience to a portfolio of board roles – the most recent of which sees him take the chair of a New Zealand health services group, having relocated his family to the country in pursuit of a more balanced lifestyle.
Matt Muscio has been appointed non-executive chair of Pacific Health Group, the New Zealand and Australian health services business backed by private equity firm Five V. The appointment adds to a board portfolio that already includes a non-executive directorship at EBOS Group – an ASX 200-listed healthcare distributor – and a directorship at Tetrous, a United States-based regenerative medicine company developing biologic solutions for sports medicine surgery. Together, the three roles span listed-company governance, private equity and early-stage medical technology; precisely the breadth of business that Matt thrives on.
It is a long way from where he started, though medicine has been a constant throughout.
Matt grew up in a medical family – his father an orthopaedic surgeon, his mother a nurse – and briefly studied medicine before switching to business. But the pull of the clinical world never quite left him. After university, asliding doors opportunity presented in a sales role with a small distributor in Brisbane that turned out to be the moment everything clicked.
“That experience of getting to sell a technology and then being invited into a clinical space where you would become part of a surgical team, providing support and at times advice around the use of devices, was something that really pulled me in,” he said. “I loved the opportunity to impact people’s lives, the purpose associated with the work that we did. And technology in medtech is moving so quickly that it has continued to be a great stimulation.”
Just a year in, Matt was approached and joined Depuy, Johnson and Johnson’s orthopedic business, moving to Melbourne and in time, leading their spine and neurosurgical businesses. While a strong learning ground, as Matt moved into more senior roles and worked through an MBA, he became curious about what a different platform might allow him to build.
That curiosity took him to Sydney and to LifeHealthcare, then owned by Crescent Capital; his first experience of private equity (PE). He joined as chief operating officer, focused on growing the business while the chief executive and chief financial officer ran an exit process. The company listed at the end of 2013, and Matt became chief executive in 2015.
As a listed microcap, LifeHealthcare weathered share-price volatility and the ordinary pressures of public markets before Pacific Equity Partners (PEP) approached the business at the end of 2017. It was delisted in 2018, becoming Matthew’s second time working alongside PE.
And even with fresh PE backing he said, “it wasn’t all straightforward”.
“We had to get through COVID, which was a very challenging period for us. We were a business heavily exposed to elective surgery, so lockdowns would stop surgeries and then they’d rebound. But it was exciting because PEP really gave us an opportunity to think more broadly around what we could create as a regional platform and backed us on an ambitious acquisition plan.”
Under that ownership, the business quadrupled in size over three and a half years, through a series of strategic and transformational acquisitions, including expansion into Southeast Asia with the purchase of Transmedic Group. The final chapter was a sale to EBOS in 2022, after which Matt joined as a chief executive to integrate LifeHealthcare and its various businesses into a new medical technology division.
It was at that point that he chose to wind back his executive career, moving his family to New Zealand, and joining the EBOS board in January 2025. Soon after, Adrian Belle, co-founder of Allura Partners, approached him with another opportunity: to become Chair of Pacific Health Group. He was appointed to the role in June 2026.
Today, Matt finds himself operating at board level across these three very different business structures: EBOS, as an ASX-listed company comes with a mature governance function and traditional board responsibilities, Pacific Health Group, being mid-sized and PE backed, requires more involvement in the day-to-day operations, and then there’s Tetrous, which he describes as “an exciting startup and likely acquisition target within the next few years”.
What draws him to a business, he says, is the prospect of growth – both organic and through acquisition – and of working with people committed to developing talent around them.
And what he enjoys about working across the three distinct cultures is “the cadence… it’s stimulating to play at both ends and think about what I can take from each of those experiences to benefit the other”.
Equally important, because this is why he moved from executive into governance roles and from Australia to New Zealand, is the balance. “I feel like I’m very lucky that all of these pieces have come together in a short time to be able to not only give me avenues for growth, but at the same time allow me to spend more time with the family as I have done in the move across here to New Zealand.”
Having made the move from executive to governance, Matt sees genuine advantages. “It’s certainly easier to remain focused on the big picture – to think about what will be most effective to unlock growth, or look at the management team and think about where they need more support – without being distracted by those day-to-day fires.”
However, it hasn’t all been easy. “Going from being the person who does a lot of the talking and explanation and being challenged by the board, to being able to deliver the right line of questioning in order to assist a management team in identifying blind spots or evolving strategy, perhaps identifying new areas of risk.”
“It’s a skill that I feel like I’m still developing,” he said. “The range of exposure I’ve had has been very helpful; I’m able to borrow from those other directors who I’ve seen operating effectively at the boardroom table.”
Keeping boards and the executive team aligned, he’s learnt, “starts with communication and relationships – creating a dynamic where everybody feels valued, where you can have conversations before an issue comes up, where people are very much open to new ideas, prepared to work through challenges, and perhaps pivot on strategy.”
Asked what he would do differently, Matt’s answer is a useful one for any executive eyeing a governance career.
“If I’d known I was going into governance, I probably would’ve paid a bit more attention to the way different directors were operating in my early days,” he said. “I would certainly strongly encourage anyone who wants to evolve into a governance career to get exposure early, in either industry boards or not-for-profit boards.”
He points to his own time on the Medical Technology Association of Australia, and to the Australian Institute of Company Directors’ course, as formative – as much for the people he met as the frameworks he gained. “You get to see people on very different governance journeys with different challenges. So, soak it all up, look to find some role models in governance you can spend time with, and keep learning, both in a formal and an informal setting.”
His final piece of advice is one Allura is glad to hear. “Make sure you’ve got great recruitment companies – people who are really thoughtful,” he said. “What I appreciated was that it wasn’t just a case of, great, let me get you a list of opportunities. Adrian took the time to understand what motivated me, where I had an opportunity both to bring skills to the table and develop new ones. Finding great supporters to help you find that next opportunity is very important.”
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