Founder & Chief Investment Officer
Matthew started his career as a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force after completing his studies in Aeronautical Engineering at the Australian Defence Force Academy (UNSW), where he graduated with First Class Honours and the University Medal. For his honours thesis, he developed an algorithm to design hypersonic scramjet inlets using genetic optimisation techniques (precursor models to today’s AI/ML models).
Matthew went on to study economics and politics at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where he graduated with a First.
While at Oxford, he decided to leave the military to pursue an investment career. After interning at Morgan Stanley, he joined Makena Capital, an endowment model investment firm in California. He then completed his MBA at the Harvard Business School, as a Menzies Scholar.
Following this, he joined Stockdale Street, a large single family investment office in London. He was part of the founding team and was made a partner of the business in 2016. It was at Stockdale Street where Matthew developed and refined the strategy now employed at Kalakau Avenue. He returned to Australia to take up the role of Chief Investment Officer at Tanarra Capital, an Australian alternative asset management business, before launching Kalakau Avenue in 2023.
Matthew has served for almost 15 years on the Finance & Investment Committee of the Rhodes Trust (currently Vice Chairman of Finance), which funds the Rhodes Scholarships to the University of Oxford. He was an investment advisory board member for a multi-family investment business in Alabama. Matthew also remains on the Investment Committee of Tin Alley Ventures, a joint venture between Tanarra Capital and the University of Melbourne.
Outside of work Matthew is a keen tennis player, surfer, and loves hiking in remote places.
