Matt grew up in the county outskirts in South Alabama at Rt. 1, Lot 1 on a two-track sand road, starting life in a 600 sq ft abandoned farmhouse that his dad had worked board-by-board to rebuild. 

Since he was a child, he’s loved escaping into the unknown of adventure, challenge and possibility. His life has not been without significant hardship but he is uncommonly resilient. Matt believes in possibility, in overcoming, and is a master in the art and science of never giving up. 

After being kicked out of public school as a delinquent, Matt graduated high school and got an undergraduate, and master’s degree.” He is a prolific reader, a powerful generalist, and an independent thinker. 

At 25, he moved to Togo, West Africa, and began building equipment from what was lying around to drill wells and install water pumps through local businesses. The fact that 100 feet of soil and rock separated people from life and death was, in Matt’s heart, an obstacle worth overcoming.  Faced with the deathly consequences of the water crisis there, he partnered with local individuals to build equipment, drill wells, and install pumps to eradicate the water crisis at a village-to-village level--scaling to 100 wells in its 2nd year.

In 2011, Matt was hospitalized and confined to a bed and wheelchair due to constant battering of illness and malaria from work in villages. He overcame his extreme medical challenges that resulted from the subsequent autoimmune meltdown and losing 117lbs, eventually becoming an ultramarathoner and Ironman 140.6 finisher, completing the latter two months after being hit by a 50mph SUV while cycling.

By age 35, he was named CEO at Water4, spending the last ten years starting, coaching, and scaling businesses in 15 countries, completing 6,500 water projects impacting 1.6 million people.

At Water4, the organization will serve 7 million people by 2030 through training and equipping local heroes to solve local problems with local resources through its business-based approach that aims to end the need for charity through opportunity.

As CEO Matt designed and led Water4 through a massive transition in operational strategy and scale, set a new long-term vision, led an organizational rebranding, navigated multinational acquisitions, and saw a doubling of the organization’s revenue in his first four years of leadership. Matt is both a visionary and an operational leader, driven for big impact but competent to build the systems and structures necessary for success. Matt passionate about championing people who are overlooked and helping maximize unrealized potential. 

Focused on his faith, family, health, community, and personal growth, Matt lives in many tensions that he believes can propel one towards personal freedom and joy when kept in balance with intention. He’s passionate about leading others toward their own freedom and releasing the potential within us all.