Founders & CXOs

Healthium Medtech Has a New CEO — Gaurav Goel Takes Charge of One of India's Most Globally Distributed Medical Device Companies

By Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief · August 10,2026 · 2 min read

Mustafa Shariff, Editor in Chief — Healthium Medtech Has a New CEO — Gaurav Goel Takes Charge of One of India's Most Globally Distributed Medical Device Companies

Summary

  • Healthium Medtech Appoints Gaurav Goel as CEO and MD — Global MedTech Leader Takes Charge of India's 100-Country Medical Device Company
  • Healthium Medtech has appointed Gaurav Goel as CEO and MD effective August 1, 2026, with 20+ years of global leadership including 11 years in medtech. Anish Bafna transitions to Non-Executive Chairman after transforming Healthium from domestic to global.

"The past eight years have been immensely rewarding, and I am incredibly proud of what we have accomplished together. Healthium enters its next phase of growth from a position of strength, and I am delighted to welcome Gaurav as its next CEO and MD. His global experience, strategic vision, and proven leadership make him well placed to lead the company forward. Healthium will continue to build on its strong momentum under his leadership — and I look forward to supporting that journey in my new role."

Healthium Medtech Limited, the KKR-backed Indian surgical products company present in nearly 100 countries globally, has appointed Gaurav Goel as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director with effect from August 1, 2026. The appointment follows the elevation of Anish Bafna — who led Healthium for the past eight years — to the role of Non-Executive Chairman, transitioning from the day-to-day operational leadership he has held since 2018.
Gaurav Goel joins Healthium with more than two decades of global leadership experience, with the last 11 years specifically in the medical technology industry. Prior to joining Healthium, he served as Chief Commercial Officer at a leading global medical device company with operations spanning more than 75 countries, where he held responsibility for global commercial operations and played a key role in driving the company's international footprint expansion through both organic growth and strategic acquisitions.
The Healthium Transformation Under Anish Bafna
The leadership transition is best understood in the context of what Healthium has accomplished under Anish Bafna's eight-year tenure. When Apax Funds acquired Healthium in 2018, it was primarily a domestic suture manufacturer — a well-regarded Indian brand in wound closure but with limited international scale. Over the subsequent eight years, Bafna and his team executed a systematic transformation: diversifying the product portfolio into arthroscopy, advanced wound care, and other surgical consumables categories through in-house R&D and targeted acquisitions including AbGel, CareNow, and other strategic bolt-ons; expanding international distribution from approximately 50 countries to nearly 100; strengthening manufacturing quality and regulatory capability; and positioning Healthium for the transition from Apax to KKR (completed in 2024) at a valuation reflecting the company's transformation.
Bafna's own framing of the transition is direct: Healthium enters its next phase of growth from a position of strength. His transition to Non-Executive Chairman — rather than a complete departure — signals continuity of strategic direction even as operational leadership changes.
Gaurav Goel's Global Commercial Leadership Profile
Goel's background as Chief Commercial Officer at a global medical device company with 75+ country operations provides a specific and well-matched skill profile for Healthium's next phase. The capabilities that global commercial leadership at that scale develops — building and managing international distributor networks, navigating the regulatory environments of multiple markets, identifying and integrating acquisitions to build portfolio breadth, and managing the pricing and competitive dynamics of surgical consumables across developed and emerging markets — are precisely the capabilities that Healthium's continued international expansion requires.
Healthium's current portfolio — wound closure (sutures, staplers, haemostats), arthroscopy (sports medicine instruments and implants), and advanced wound care — serves the surgical consumables market in hospitals and surgical centres across its nearly 100-country distribution network. The international expansion thesis for a company of Healthium's profile typically involves deepening penetration in existing markets, extending into additional emerging market geographies with growing surgical volumes, and potentially adding new product categories through acquisition.
KKR's Strategic Intent
KKR's acquisition of Healthium from Apax in 2024 signalled a continuation of the international growth strategy rather than a strategic pivot: KKR explicitly cited Healthium's global ambitions and strong product portfolio as the basis for the investment. Goel's appointment — bringing demonstrated global commercial leadership — is consistent with KKR's intent to accelerate Healthium's international scale and acquisition pipeline.
BHC Perspective
At Bengaluru Health Community, the Healthium Medtech leadership transition is a medtech corporate strategy story that illustrates what happens when patient, long-term private equity investment in Indian medical device companies produces genuinely global platforms. Anish Bafna's eight-year transformation of Healthium — from domestic sutures to 100-country global medtech — is a blueprint for what Indian medtech companies can achieve with the right strategic leadership and investor support. For BHC founders building in surgical products, hospital consumables, or medical device distribution — Healthium's trajectory is the commercial model worth studying.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who has been appointed CEO of Healthium Medtech?
A: Gaurav Goel, with effect from August 1, 2026. He brings 20+ years of global leadership, including 11 years in the medical technology industry and a prior role as Chief Commercial Officer at a leading global medical device company with 75+ country operations.
Q: What happens to Anish Bafna?
A: Bafna transitions from CEO to Non-Executive Chairman after eight years leading Healthium's transformation from a domestic suture manufacturer into a global medtech company present in ~100 countries, including portfolio expansion into arthroscopy and advanced wound care.
Q: What is Healthium Medtech?
A: A KKR-backed (acquired from Apax in 2024) Indian surgical products company with a diversified portfolio spanning wound closure, arthroscopy, and advanced wound care, present in nearly 100 countries with manufacturing in India.