How MLCOA and Riverside Partnered For Growth

Meet Robyn Walsh, the CEO of Australian healthcare services company MLCOA and Simon Feiglin, a partner at The Riverside Company. When Riverside acquired MLCOA in 2010, it tapped Walsh to “build the engine to support growth” of the company.

The story told by Walsh and Feiglin begins with outgoing MLCOA founder Dr. Nathan Orbach making clear that he had to approve Riverside’s CEO choice. Enter Walsh, an American woman who convinced Orbach that her deep experience in the healthcare industry and teambuilding skills would help the executives of MLCOA take the company to the next level. For his part, Feiglin supported Robyn in her quest to transform the business and culture of what was a very founder-driven organization. The two discuss the way they worked to professionalize the operations at MLCOA as well as how they pulled off a key add-on acquisition of a competitor that was eating their lunch.