With a career spanning over 25 years of operating at the intersection of design, technology, and outcome, Matt is efficiency-minded and action-oriented; a creative and analytical problem-solver; lateral and systems thinker; empathetic, collaborative, and agile. Matt is passionate about learner experience design, education technology, and product/service innovation.Matt is the Founder and CEO of CrossThink Ventures, Inc. CrossThink acquires and invests in companies that meet their criteria as legacy: stable, evergreen operations with strong potential upside, matched to the strengths of the CrossThink team. Their focus in each acquisition is to drive expansion and growth through operational efficiencies, customer relationships, and product/service innovation.Before CrossThink Ventures, Matt was the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for the Creative Economy (CCE) at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts: an innovative enterprise education model that integrates the spectrum of creative disciplines with technology, through dynamic research and collaboration with internal and external partners, enrolling over 1,000 students annually. Under Matt's leadership, the CCE academic programs, industry partnerships, and research projects generated over $1,000,000 in annual revenue.During his previous 10-year career as a publisher and book producer, Matt authored, co-authored, and designed over a dozen books, including the internationally best-selling Type in Motion: Innovations in Digital Graphics. Matt’s other books address such defining topics as motion design, music and the visual arts, and information visualization. Matt’s writings and projects have been published internationally in design journals and books; exhibited internationally; included in private collections; and have received awards from PRINT Magazine, AIGA, and Art Directors Club.Matt also was tenured at the rank of professor in the Department of Graphic Design, where he served as department chair for six years. Under Matt's leadership as department chair, the MFA program in Design/Visual Communication attained and held the #4 specialty ranking in US News & World Report. Matt also has served in inaugural leadership roles throughout his years at VCU.In 2024 Matt was awarded the honor of Distinguished Career Professor and continues to teach workshops and courses in several programs part-time.