In addition to leading Lawndale, Mr. Shapiro has also served as an Officer, Director, or Observer on many boards and debt and equity bankruptcy committees.  He was most recently Chairman of the Official Equity Committee in the Premier Exhibitions/RMS Titanic bankruptcy.  Mr. Shapiro was formerly Vice Chairman of the Board and Chair of the Governance/Nominating Committee of Arlington Hospitality, a hotel development and management company.  He is the immediate past Board Chair/President of the Mill Valley Library Foundation, on whose board he has served for many years and is a Board Member of the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame Northern California. Mr. Shapiro is a long-time member and Board Leadership Fellow of the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) and, via Lawndale, an Associate Member of the Council of Institutional Investors (CII) for almost two decades.

Mr. Shapiro has more than three decades of portfolio management and analytically varied experience from a number of buy-side positions, employing a rare combination of credit, legal, equity and workout skills.  Prior to founding the Lawndale organization in 1992, Mr. Shapiro managed the workout and restructuring of large portfolios of high-yield bonds, distressed equities and risk arbitrage securities for the Belzberg family office, First City Capital.  Before joining First City, Mr. Shapiro was involved in numerous corporate LBO and recapitalization transactions for Manufacturers Hanover Trust and the Spectrum Group, a private equity firm. 

Mr. Shapiro was selected to the NACD Directorship 100 in 2012, a list of the most influential leaders in the boardroom and corporate governance community.  He is a frequent speaker on corporate governance, fiduciary duty and activist investing topics, including on panels for the Council of Institutional Investors, Corporate Directors Forum, Society For Corporate Governance, SEC Advisory Committee on Small Public Companies and the National Investor Relations Institute.  Mr. Shapiro has been a faculty member of the corporate governance/director’s education programs of UCLA Anderson and the National Association of Corporate Directors and presents often at several other director education programs.  In addition to being a Contributing Author to Seeking Alpha, Mr. Shapiro has received national recognition through feature articles, in Forbes, Barron’s, Institutional Investor and a Business Week article that labeled him “The Gary Cooper of Governance.”

Mr. Shapiro received dual JD and MBA degrees from UCLA, where he was an Olin Fellow at the UCLA School of Law and a Venture Capital Fellow at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.  Mr. Shapiro received a BS in Business Administration from UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, where he periodically guest lectures.

Leading all acquisition and financing efforts including new asset origination, capital raising efforts and asset management, Matt’s team is responsible for identifying and assessing potential markets; originating and executing new transactions including deal sourcing, underwriting, due diligence, deal negotiations; and raising capital through both debt and equity.

Before joining the company, Matthew served as the Vice President of Acquisitions & Development at Ian Schrager Company, an owner, developer and manager of hotel & residential projects in gateway cities, for five years. During his tenure, he was responsible for all transaction execution, origination, coordinating market & property due diligence, financial underwriting and various development initiatives. Prior to his time with Schrager, Matt worked in the investment banking division at Bear Stearns focusing on real estate, gaming and lodging.