Executive Coaching & Healthcare Consulting
Leading the way through complex terrain to calmer waters
Real experience. Real results.
Portage partners with top performers to navigate operations, strategy, and transformation — drawing on real experience at the highest levels of the industry.
About Matthew
Matthew is the System Vice President of Surgical and Anesthesia Services at an award winning health system. In this role, he has direct accountability for $1B in annual revenue, 2,000+ FTEs, and more than 100k surgical procedures across eight hospitals and surgery centers in the Chicago market.
His career has been marked by significant operational responsibility and challenges that accelerated his growth to the executive level. He began his career as an Administrative Fellow, and was promoted into system-level leadership by age 34. Coaching proved invaluable in his leadership journey as he pushed to improve and deepen his impact across the industry. His connections and reputation have allowed him the opportunity to serve on advisory board roles at emerging healthcare companies, allowing him to learn and test ideas while remaining committed to his core work as an operator.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts from Saint Louis University, where he studied public health and economics, and completed two Master's degrees from the University of Iowa: a Master of Health Administration and a Master of Business Administration.
Outside of work, Matthew is an avid learner who loves reading, podcasts, photography, and outdoor adventures. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences including Becker's Healthcare, ASA Advance, OR Manager, and more.
Matthew is at his best when he's solving hard problems with smart people. His leadership philosophy is simple: “Let’s carry the weight together.”
Operator First. Coach Second.
THE PORTAGE PROCESS
Every crossing follows the same four steps
READ THE WATER
Recognize the need for a new chapter
The most important skill most leaders never develop: sensing when what got you here won't get you there. A role plateaus. A team outgrows its structure. A strategy stops working quietly, long before it fails loudly. Portage starts here — with the awareness to see what's shifting before it shifts you.
SCOUT THE ROUTE
Find the path, prepare for the work
No good crossing starts without knowing the terrain. Before lifting anything, you study the route, weigh the options, and decide what's worth carrying. This is where scattered thinking becomes clear direction, and a hard decision becomes a plan you can actually execute.
CARRY THE LOAD
Hands on through every hard stretch
This is where most guidance falls short. Advice is easy to give from afar. Portage means shouldering the weight alongside you — through the difficult conversations, the setbacks, and the stretches where progress feels slow — until the water appears.
REACH CALM WATER
Sustainable outcomes, lasting capability
The goal was never just the other side. It's arriving stronger — better equipped, more self-aware, and with the judgment to read the next stretch on your own. That's what a good portage leaves behind.
COACHING
Clarity when it matter most
Structured 1:1 coaching for leaders navigating complex terrain and complex challenges
Executive Leaders
C-suite and rising operators — in healthcare or beyond — facing high-stakes decisions, promotions, transitions, or strategic crossroads.
Commercial Closers
High-performing sales executives who want to sell the way health systems actually buy — understood from the other side of the table.
Health Tech Founders
Founders and teams navigating the early innings of entrepreneurship — informed by a decade of being on the receiving end of the pitch.
ADVISORY SERVICES
Committed to Measurable Impact
Trusted by executive leaders to turn hard-won operating expertise into lasting value.
Most advisory work ends with a slide deck. Portage is built to end with results. Matthew has spent more than a decade inside a major health system: building teams, managing budgets, staffing models, and physician relationships that determine the performance of a department. That operator's lens shapes every engagement. Define what success looks like up front, measure it honestly, and commit to the process. Outcomes will follow.
Ready to find calmer waters?
Whether you are facing a leadership challenge, a strategic decision, or a career inflection point, let’s talk. No obligation. Just a conversation.