2023 Strategic Program Speakers

Matt is a Chemical Engineer, Entrepreneur, and Investor with 10 years of business and R&D experience in the sustainability sector. Matt began his career working as a Researcher for NASA on the OMEGA (Off-shore Membrane Enclosure for Growing Algae) Project; an $11M DoD and DoE-funded project with a mission to create sustainable bio-fuels that would compete with fossil fuels, but not compete with agriculture for water, fertilizer, or land. While at NASA, Matthew also co-invented Desalgae, an advanced Forward Osmosis water recycling and desalination systems. Matthew went on to founding Integrated Algae Solutions (IAS); an advanced water purification and renewable energy company. For the three years as the President and Chief Technology Officer of IAS, Matt raised $8M from private investors and VCs, completed 14 commercial scale pilot projects, scaled up his water and bio-fuel systems, and advised 8 other clean tech start-ups. Matt has since joined Plug and Play, and Co-Founded the Plug and Play Sustainability Platform in Oct 2019. This platform runs accelerator programs in Ending Plastic Waste, Carbon Neutrality,  Sustainability Fashion, Clean resources, and Shelter Tech across Silicon Valley, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Johannesburg, Tokyo, and Sao Paulo. In addition to these accelerator programs, Matt also overseas Plug and Plays investments into the Sustainability space.