Profile and Expertise:

Matt has had a pioneering legal career where he has acquired wealth of diverse legal, compliance, sustainability / ESG, government affairs, impact investing and business and human rights experience across the globe.

After completing a Fulbright Scholarship where he advised the Government of Bulgaria on reforming its institutions to align with international legal standards so it could join the European Union, he began his career at the international law firm Latham & Watkins in New York where he worked on several high profile litigations and international arbitrations before focusing his practice on multi-billion dollar cross-border transactions for investment banks and private equity firms and also spending time in the firm’s London, Milan and Moscow offices.

Matt has since worked at the United Nations Global Compact as acting head of policy and legal, as a vice president at a private investment firm in Singapore specialized at impact investments in emerging markets, and as senior counsel at a renewables company in the solar industry where he led the ESG and Government Affairs activities in APAC as well working on legal and compliance matters and overseeing litigations and arbitrations.
He is also longtime advisor and general counsel for Impact Investment Exchange, a global pioneer in the impact investing space in the Global South that has developed innovative financial products such as Orange Bonds and successfully raised hundreds of millions of dollars for impact enterprises.

Matt has worked on more than US$30bn of cross border transactions, including bonds issued by corporates and sovereigns and mergers and acquisitions transactions. Clients he has advised have included leading investment banks, private equity firms, and listed companies, as well as several Governments in strategic initiatives, international organizations including United Nations, World Bank, the OECD and the Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) and international charities such as BRAC and Save the Children.

He has represented clients in ICC arbitrations, and overseen CIAC, HKIAC and SIAC arbitrations. He has been in courtrooms in Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Rwanda, Singapore, The Hague, The Netherlands and Zimbabwe. 

Matt has also worked on several Constitutions: The Constitution of the Republic of South Sudan, The Constitution of the Principles for Responsible Investment Initiative, and a new Constitution for the Republic of Zimbabwe.

Matt serves on the Advisory Board of the DQ Institute, the world's leading standard for digital intelligence to enable humans to interact positively with technology adopted by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Organization for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

He also has advised ChainArgos, a leading blockchain intelligence firm that has advised the United Nations Security Council on money laundering by rogue Governments including North Korea. 

Before attending law school, Matt spent a year in Costa Rica writing for a magazine about political and environmental issues in Central America.