Before co-founding iReality in February 2000, Matthew Burlage was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers in Hong Kong, where he created the first and largest dedicated telecommunications, media and technology (TMT) group at an investment bank in Asia. He built Asia's leading TMT franchise and was responsible for the majority of lead management, advisory, strategic development and research for Asia/Pacific's leading TMT companies, including chinadotcom, Pacific Internet, Korea Thrunet, Softbank, Yahoo! Japan, Pacific Century CyberWorks, Hongkong Telecom, LG Group and Korea Telecom. Together, Matt and Co-Founder Ravi Sarathy are ranked Number One in ex-Japan Corporate Asia, Number Two in Corporate Asia (Softbank was number one) by Institutional Investor and are members of Institutional Investor's Top Twenty Global E-Finance Elite for Asia and Europe

Matt has been involved in corporate finance for Asia's leading corporations and financial institutions since 1985, pioneering technology sector coverage in the region in 1994. He has been an advisor to Asia's leading technology and telecommunications clients in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Taiwan and Korea as well as to leading global telecommunications operators in Europe and the United States expanding into Asia.

Matt has spent 10 of the last 14 years in Asia, based in Tokyo and Hong Kong. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Yale College, and attended the Japanese Language Institute of Sophia University in Tokyo. He serves on the Board of Directors of 3rd Frontier in Singapore.