Matthew Lees, Analyst, Consultant & Vice President, Patricia Seybold Group

Matthew Lees is an Analyst, Consultant and Vice President at the Patricia Seybold Group. He brings over 15 years of experience in helping organizations leverage technology to build stronger relationships with customers. As an analyst in the group’s Customers.com Research Service, his current research is focused on social software and online customer and partner communities, specializing in the business impact of social software, particularly ROI, and the related organizational challenges.

Matthew was previously the principal of Lees Consulting, a provider of strategic and tactical services to businesses and not-for-profit organizations on their use of technology and the Internet to communicate and collaborate more effectively with customers.

In 1996 Matthew was a founding member of MaMaMedia Inc., the premier independent Web site for children. He joined the company as Director of Technology and Multimedia Production and subsequently held a variety of positions in technology, content development and production, customer service and membership, online advertising, and general operations. In 2001 he created and managed the Customer Service and Relationship Management (CSRM) department, developing industry-leading expertise in online communication with children, and setting customer service and community standards for the company and its partners and clients. As Vice President of CSRM, he and his team helped grow MaMaMedia’s online community to more than 5 million registered users, ensuring cost effectiveness, adherence to (and development of) industry-accepted best practices, and compliance with federal regulatory standards such as the Children's Online Privacy and Protection Act (COPPA).

Before joining MaMaMedia, Matthew was Vice President of Operations and Head Programmer at InVideo Systems, a developer of virtual-reality games and museum exhibits for clients such as Walt Disney World / EpcotCenter, Blockbuster Entertainment, The Museum of Science (Boston), and Fuji TV.

Prior to his work as an expert in technology-based community and communications, Matthew taught physics and astronomy at the PomfretSchool, a college preparatory school in Connecticut. He has also worked as an optical engineer for the Technicon Instruments Corporation (now part of the Bayer Corporation), designing the optical systems for medical blood analyzers.

Matthew holds a master's degree in applied physics from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a bachelor's degree in physics from TrinityCollege, in Hartford, Connecticut.