A recent UCLA graduate, Matthew Gates comes to Ross with eleven years of retail and operations management experience. As an undergrad, Matthew, studied the unique challenges and opportunities related to stimulating long-run growth in urban communities. His two-year research project, which included thorough literature review, detailed proposal, interviews of local entrepreneurs, and analysis of growth opportunities, gave Matthew a unique insight into the important role Commercial Real Estate plays in facilitating urban economic growth.
Over the last year, Matthew has pursued opportunities to expand his industry knowledge. After graduation, Matthew interned for Boston Private Bank’s community investment division. In this role, Matthew worked with syndication funds and the bank’s credit committee on multiple LIHTC projects, underwrote both commercial and residential loans, and assisted in cultivating business relationships with public entities, as well as for profit and non-profit developers. Since then Matthew has continued to take Real Estate Finance and quantitative courses at UCLA extension, and participated in the Real Estate Associate Program’s (REAP) 2015 cohort.
Prior to returning to school in 2010, Mr. Gates enjoyed a successful eleven-year retail and operations management career, with Fortune 50 companies. Throughout which his success was predicated on the ability to think analytically, identify business opportunities, deliver impactful results. During his career, Matthew has gained significant experience with budget development and execution, long range forecasting, vendor negotiations, and operational analysis.
For Matthew, ROSS represents an opportunity to advance both his broad industry knowledge and cultivate the technical skills needed to successfully transition into the industry.
Email: gates48@ucla.edu