Matthew Cooleen

Executive summary

Matt Cooleen is a partner in Grant Thornton’s Financial Services Risk Advisory Service Practice, and serves as the Global Head of the Banking Industry. In addition, Matt is the US Mortgage Industry leader. He focuses on counseling Grant Thornton’s Financial Service clients on Strategy, M&A, Enterprise Risk Management governance and framework matters as well as operational transformation of risk and compliance organizations. Matthew works with many of GT’s private equity clients on transactional and strategy services related to M&A, regulatory matters and portfolio acquisitions and dispositions.

Prior to joining Grant Thornton, Matt spent 8 years with Deloitte and North Highland Consulting as a leader in their financial services consulting practices. He was responsible for the banking and mortgage industries. Matthew’s focus has been on risk management framework & governance advisory and operational transformation advisory driven by risk, regulatory or strategic concerns. He is considered an industry luminary in the field mortgage, consumer and risk finance.

Prior to his consulting career Matt was a senior executive in the Mortgage, Banking and Hedge Fund industries as a Managing Director in Structured Credit trading at Deutsche Bank and ran BNP Paribas’ Structured finance group for North America. He served as President of AIG Structured Finance, a special situation investment vehicle of AIG corporate. His focus was on mortgage, consumer, asset backed and specialty finance industries as well as the structured credit trading and capital markets finance areas. He was also the Founder, Chief Risk Officer and Managing Principal of HudsonCross, a distressed special situations hedge fund based in Greenwich CT.

Matt has advised the top 5 global banks and all of the leading global mortgage industry players. He is a frequent advisor to a number of the largest private equity firms related to corporate and portfolio acquisitions and dispositions. His recent body of work has been focused on the risk and compliance organizational transformation as well as mortgage origination and servicing transformation, digital strategy and risk governance.

Professional qualifications and memberships

• Certified Public Accountant
• Chartered Global Management Accountant
• Mortgage Banker Association - Loan administration committee member
  
• Advisory Board Member – Altada Technology Solutions

Community involvement

• Board Member – Mezzapalooza Foundation

Education

• Fordham University – Gabelli School of Business
• BSBA Accounting