MATT Leadership Team Welcomes Bart Shively As CSO

Bart Shively, a leadership fixture on countless MATT jobsites for nearly two decades, is stepping out of the field and into the freshly established role of Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). As the MATT family looks to the future of construction in Northern and Southern California, entrusting the execution of the company’s vision to someone with the right dedication and experience is of paramount importance. In his new role with MATT as CSO, Shively will be reporting directly to CEO Steve Matt and will shepherd the company through the formulation and implementation of its long-term goals.

CSO: A New Role For a New Vision

MATT’s C-Suite realized that, as operations continued to flourish and expand, they would need someone at the helm who could identify, articulate and deploy a master plan to steer the company forward. Since 2003, Shively has overseen the development of such major projects as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, BCAM at LACMA and Our Savior Church & USC Caruso Catholic Center. His years of experience and success made him a leading contender for the position.

Among his most critical new duties are mapping out and communicating MATT’s key strategic plan and corporate goals as they pertain to every level of the company as well as aligning strategy with business development, marketing, succession planning, process improvement and operations. In addition to working internally to ensure that everyone is on the same page and equipped for the highest level of performance, Shively will also be creating opportunities for existing or potential future clients who may need assistance in overcoming challenges that MATT’s team is particularly versed in resolving. Positioning the company to identify and harness technology’s evolving role in construction as it continues to evolve and training the next generation in its creative application will be another priority.

Bart Shively Brings a Rich History In Construction and Management To New Position Of CSO

Shively’s career in the industry has taken him through a wide array of project types, spanning from luxury high-rise hotels, to hospitals, to commercial buildings, to daring museums. Encountering a variety of rewarding challenges in the field has granted him profound perspective on how to tackle very different kinds of obstacles and how to unify teams towards realizing each vision. The new position of CSO will require those vital tools, but it will also take a far-reaching understanding of where the team wants to head in years to come. Shively’s rich history in the construction industry will help him to lead the company in the most fruitful direction.

Before joining the MATT Construction family, Shively worked for a Colorado firm and for international conglomerate J.A. Jones, whose annual earnings amounted to roughly $5 billion. During his tenure at Jones, leadership tapped Shively to be one of a select few who would be rewarded with a year-long leadership training program, partly due to his success in managing difficult projects. Over the course of the program, the 24 selected trainees worked together on exercises ranging from rock climbing and river rafting to group problem solving. The experience taught him that management and leadership are “completely different skills,” especially when it comes to building. “Knowing the schedule and costs isn’t the same as getting a group of people to understand a goal and all be working towards that,” he shares.

Prior to entering the construction industry, Shively graduated from Purdue University with a degree in civil engineering, which endowed him with a sense of the analytical framework necessary for tackling large-scale projects. He later received an MBA from California State University at Long Beach in business management and marketing, further equipping him with a bird’s eye view of how to maximize operations and branding to position a firm for future growth. As MATT continues to grow from a family-run business to a billion-dollar firm, developing a system and protocol that provides the same kind of sensitivity, care and understanding for a $200 million project as it does for the entire business at large remains a crucial driver of Shively’s approach.