Matt Hayden, CFO – CONVERSATIONS: The Voice of Emerging Leadership

As the third generation of the Boyles and Morgans begins their chapter in their family’s storied company, they work alongside a new generation of emerging leaders throughout the firm. One of those dynamic new voices is Matt Hayden, who joined Boyle Investment Company as Deputy Treasurer. His arrival was part of a succession plan for longtime CFO, Charles Claiborne, who had held his position for more than 30 years. Hayden assumed the role of CFO earlier this year, taking over financial accounting and reporting as well as tax planning and compliance. Claiborne remains at Boyle handling special projects.

Hayden, a CPA with bachelor and master’s degrees in accounting from the University of Mississippi, has deep experience and expertise not only in accounting, but in complex corporate financial structures and mergers and acquisitions. A former advisor with Morgan Keegan, Hayden came to Boyle from Wunderlich Securities in the investment banking group, where he advised companies on M&A and capital-raising transactions in the financial services, industrial and energy sectors.

Q: What was appealing about joining Boyle?

A: When I was in the investment banking field, I was exposed to the commercial real estate industry through a number of transactions that I handled. Boyle is a developer, owner and manager of real estate, which exposes you to multiple aspects of the industry. That, coupled with Boyle’s long history and excellent reputation, made this opportunity very attractive.

Q: What were your primary responsibilities when you first joined Boyle?

A: Right away I began to learn the job and responsibilities from Charles Claiborne, who has been a tremendous mentor to me. During this time period, I continued to take on more and more CFO responsibilities. One of my first projects was overseeing the overhaul of the company’s accounting and property management software. We chose to implement Yardi Systems, a cloud-based software that is well-known in the commercial real estate industry. Yardi has enabled us to integrate our property management and accounting platforms and provide more real-time reporting among our accounting, property management and development teams.

Q: In what ways has your experience as Senior Vice President of Wunderlich Securities and First Vice President of Morgan Keegan & Company prepared you for the position of CFO of Boyle?

A: Investment banking provides a breadth of knowledge and experiences relative to how companies operate and are financed. Many times my primary point of contact with companies with which we were doing M&A transactions was a company CFO, so I was able to learn the role side by side some industry professionals. I am enjoying my new position at Boyle, which involves communicating with our financing partners and working with our development team tracking project costs and budgets.