DS Smith is a leading provider of sustainable packaging solutions, paper products and recycling services worldwide. It operates in more than 34 different countries, employing over 30,000 people. Matthew reports to the CFO and is responsible for developing and executing the Group's real estate strategy. He sits on the Group Capital Committee and is responsible for all real estate, construction and FM activities across the group. DS Smith has c500 properties totalling c57m sq ft. https://www.dssmith.com/contact/locations

Place Consulting provided strategic corporate real estate advice to companies undergoing structural or industry change. Clients included Kingfisher Plc, Sainsbury's Plc, Laura Ashley Plc and the NHS Executive Board.Key projects included the following:• Helping Kingfisher Plc review all of their trading activities in 9 countries resulting is some key strategic M&A decisions,• Supporting Sainsbury's Plc develop a new real estate strategy in preparation for their Capital Markets Day,• Providing private sector insight to the NHS Executive Board report "NHS Estates Operating Model: Building for the Future" prepared by Q5• Helping guide a UK high street retailer through an administration to a new lease of life with new owners.

Matthew was responsible for all of the Long Income funds managed by M&G Real Estate in the UK and across Europe, which totalled c£7.6bn. These provided long term funding for occupiers to develop their own facilities, raise capital from their freeholds or reduce costs through regearing their leases.

Matthew was responsible for all Group property assets. He also sat on the global capital committee with responsibility for real estate decisions. In addition he had responsibility for the Group Own vs Lease strategy and assessing the impact of the changes to lease accounting (IFRS16). He was responsible for all property investment activities and M&A support activities

Matthew was responsible for both the UK Occupier Services business of C&W as well as running the EMEA Corporate Finance (Occupiers) team. Matthew ran complex multi-disciplinary projects for FTSE100 & 250 (or equivalent) companies, often spanning real estate, finance, accounting and legal areas which typically lasted 6-12 months and involved him reporting direct to the CFO of the relevant organisation. These projects included the structuring of multiple sale & leaseback transactions totalling c£4.9bn.His major clients included Wolseley, Morrisons, Royal Bank of Scotland, Virgin Media, Alliance Boots, Mercator (Slovenia) and Sony.He won the CoreNet Partner of the year award in 2011 for his advice to Wolseley in restructuring their estate following a major change in operational strategy.

Matthew provided broad commercial real estate advice initially to investors in property. He then set up and ran the corporate strategy team, which included a 2 year outsourced appointment as the Property Director for the London Borough of Hackney.Whilst running the Corporate Strategy team Matthew's major clients included GE, Bradford & Bingley, Kering (previously known as Pinault-Printemps-Redoute) and Santander (then known as Abbey National).He won the CoreNet Adviser of the year award in 2002 for his advice to Bradford & Bingley in restructuring their estate following the closure of their Black Horse estate agency chain.