J Matthew Saunders

Matthew works as Operations Manager with pingVision, where he has been involved in many Drupal deployments including popsci.com, spectrummagazine.com, and redblueamerica.com. Saunders is also involved in sales and customer relationship building.

He served as the Senior Director of Technology for WESTAF (the Western States Arts Federation) for eight years, where he conceptualized, wrote specifications, sold, and oversaw the build of the highly successful online application system ZAPPlication.org, a revolutionary jury system in the arts industry currently used by over 100 art shows and 30,000 artists world wide. He also conceptualized the cutting edge CultureGrants Online grants management system employed by 20 state and regional granting organizations, led the development of sites such as ArtistsRegister.com and Artjob Online, initiated and oversaw the implementation of a fully redundant, server cluster for WESTAF’s online systems, consulted with local and state arts agencies in the development of technology plans and Web based grants programs, managed of the online TourWest Grant Program, overseeing $430K of grant dispersals each cycle, and led WESTAF’s Web 2.0 Team focused on Community Building through use of Drupal.

In other areas, Matthew acts as a moderator in the TechSoup Emerging Technologies Forum where nonprofits from around the world gather. He is on the management team for NonProfits in SecondLife, an international community of nonprofit organizations. Matthew holds a Studio Arts B.A. from Bishop’s University, a Certificate of Arts Administration from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Fine Arts from Virginia Tech focusing on Internet technologies.

Matthew is still an active artist. He enjoys music, theatre, and the visual arts. He is an enthusiastic traveler and takes pleasure in writing about and photographing his experiences.