Matthew enjoys creating the right conditions for philanthropy. He designed the year-long public relations campaign _Homerton 250 | Cambridge NOW_, for the College’s 250th Anniversary in 2018, bringing 1,000 people into the College for the first time, engaging 4,000 constituents, and working with 43 partner organisations, all with the aim of creating an open character and identity for a new institution.

He proposed the strategy for a new co-curricular programme, Homerton Changemakers, which supports students to develop skills of self-knowledge and influence, and to make a positive difference to society. He is a member of the Cambridge Military Education Committee and the (very civilian!) Honorary Captain of the Cambridge University Officers’ Training Corps, with a strong interest in the co-curricular skills development for students that the service units provide.

Matthew was a Trustee (2016-21) of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh’s grant-giving charity, through which Prince Philip supported many of the organisations and causes with which he was associated. He was appointed a Member of the Royal Victoria Order (MVO) in the New Year Honours in 2012, for services to The Duke as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

Matthew is currently mourning the absence of the choir We Are Sound, in which, pre-pandemic, he sang as an amateur but enthusiastic bass.