by Sander Coxe
“Charming British ex-pat” does not do justice to the new Chair of our Local LMA Steering Committee. Not only was he able to make even me (not the sharpest tool in the drawer) understand how the new LMA organizational structure works but he’s a dad, marketing guru, hockey player, runner and international man of mystery. Matt is the US leader of Vuture, an award-winning communications and brand business focused on marketing automation for professional services firms, and his active lifestyle motivated (intimidated?) me to get off the couch the day I spoke with him.
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Matt – hello sir – Thanks for being with us. First, since it’s your baby now, I have nothing against sharing all my NYLMA pals with Boston and Philadelphia, etc., but I honestly don’t really understand how this new organizational structure is supposed to work. Help!
It’s not so complicated. The local programming and communications stuff won’t change. It’s really about making our resources go further and lessening the administrative work load. The average member will see few changes – you will simply see NY content bundled on the website with content produced by Philly and New England firms and have access to the programs and social events throughout the entire region.
You are a board member and now Local Chair - how did you come to join LMA?
Vuture had professional services and law firm clients in the UK and Europe. When I first came to the US in 2007 and was working with professional service firms, like most vendors I found the LMA in researching the demographic. I must say I have been pleasantly surprised by what a nice group it is and what a tremendous vehicle it has been to get to know lots of good people quickly.
Tell me about Vuture.
Vuture was founded a little over 10 years ago in the UK with the idea of creating a single marketing communications resource for professional service firms – a one-stop tech shop for communications and brand. We built on top of our email channel offerings to develop event, web, survey and print functionality and support. “Brand standardization for comms” and all such catchy phrases apply. We have continued to add functionality over the years. Vuture US launched 5 years ago when I joined the company. We are now the most widely used marketing software platform in the Am Law 200, and we partner with likely all the CRMs in the legal space – InterAction, Saleforce, OnePlace, ContactEast, Dynamics, BDP, etc.
Why did you decide to come to our crazy little country?
I left England in 2003 a bit restless and simply wanting more. I wanted to test myself – to try a new country and see if I could establish myself there. But I didn’t want to cheat and go to a country where they spoke English, so I chose Spain. I quite literally hopped on a plane and opened a book entitled “Spain – What to Do When You Go There.” I arrived in Madrid not knowing where I was going to sleep, or what I was going to do to make a living. I found a school to learn Spanish, and I was committed to speak only Spanish and learn as quickly as I could. I was deeply rude to, and didn’t speak with, any of my English-speaking colleagues in the class. But I learned Spanish and made friends with them after.
So how did you get to the States?
Well, there are a few quite happy steps to that tale. After a bit in Madrid I got frustrated with work. I wanted a career in marketing and left Madrid to move to beautiful coastal town called Marbella. And I met an American girl.
Ah…boy meets girl, boy follows girl?
Pretty much, yeah. I met Sherri while she was on holiday for a week in Marabella. She was a lawyer at Patterson Belknap. So, she had to go home eventually, and we kept in touch. A year later, I moved – I figured, how difficult could it be to live in America – they speak English.
When was that?
In 2007. I moved to the States and was working for a competitor company to Vuture.
So it’s you and Sherri and America. What happens next?
Well, we got married in 2008 and have two fantastic little ones. Ishan (boy - 6) and Sahana (girl - 4).
Beautiful names. Those sound relatively exotic to this plain old American – pray tell.
Yes, they are Indian first names. Like all good marketers and lawyers, we have a fully negotiated and agreed upon naming convention. As my wife is Indian and I am English it goes like this: Indian First Name, English Second Name, Sharma, Parfitt. Both kids have 4 names total!
As they are both pretty young, I suspect they keep you quite busy. What do you all do for fun?
Yep, we spend most of our time chasing the little ones around. We take as many family vacations as we can and spend a lot of time with Sherri’s family near Boston.
What else do you like to do?
I am a Rangers – and hockey – fan. My college friend was a hockey player, and he turned me on to it.
“College?” I thought it was “University?” Since when do you Brits call it “College”?
Ha! I did that for your benefit – I try to blend in a bit with the vernacular. I am also quite good at waiting “on line” as opposed to “in the queue.” I am quite happy to use a different word when it will be better understood, but I refuse to change the pronunciation of a word. For example, you say “data” I say “dayta,” you say “tomayto,” I say “tomahto.” I can’t bring myself to do it.
I thank you for that! I am a big hockey fan as well. Though not a Rangers fan.
Yes, it’s a great game. I started to play roller hockey after that, and when I moved to Madrid I found a team to play for. It may surprise you, but roller hockey is popular there, and there are a lot of good players. When I came to the US, I played goalie for a team at Chelsea Piers until a few years ago. The 11 p.m. Sunday and Wednesday games were killing me.
That is a surprise, and all of it great to hear. Are you grooming the kids for the ice? Hockey is a big women’s sport too.
Ishan is learning to skate now and likes it, we have big plans for him to play for the Rangers. We’ll see about Sahana, we have introduced her to the ice for the first time this year.
How else do you extract joy out of this living?
We do a lot of the typical family things. My wife is big foodie, and we love to eat out. She is in charge of picking the restaurants. We like doing everything with the kids – sports, games, movies – in fact, we just watched the trailer for Cars 3 this morning. My daughter will watch Frozen over and over.
Oh yeah, and I run. I ran the NY Marathon last year and plan to run a bunch of half marathons and the NY Marathon again this year if selected.
My friend, I am tired just listening to you. It’s been great getting to know you a bit better. Thanks for making the time.