Specialty: Managing long-term communications campaigns; managing speechwriting and other executive communications relationships

Fields most served: Financial market players

Interview:

Q: How do you describe what you do at WHWG to friends?
Rees: Writing – speeches, articles, policy papers – and some editing.

Q: What kinds of clients do you have and what are they looking for from you?
Rees: Financial market clients (mostly) and they are often looking for me to distil global economic trends.

Q: What skill or knowledge or experience has helped you most in your work at WHWG?
Rees: Ten years of journalism and four-plus years of government speechwriting have proven to be equally useful.

Bio:   Matthew Rees has served at the highest levels of government in the United States and has written for many of the world's most influential publications.  Matthew joined the White House Writers Group in 2007, bringing with him extensive experience in business, financial markets, and globalization issues.

In 2006, Matthew assisted Henry Paulson with his maiden speeches as Treasury Secretary. From September 2003 to July 2005, Matthew served as Chief Speechwriter and Senior Adviser to William H. Donaldson, the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, where he wrote speeches on many topics, including business history, corporate governance, and international securities markets.

From February 2001 to September 2003, Matthew served as a speechwriter in the Executive Office of the President.  During this time, he wrote speeches for President Bush, on topics spanning from AIDS to trade to homeland security.  He also wrote speeches and op-eds for the National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, and the U.S. Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick.

From 1991 to 2001, Matthew wrote for a number of America's most respected publications. He was employed in Washington for The Weekly Standard, The Economist, and The New Republic, and in New York and Brussels for The Wall Street Journal.  During this time he authored hundreds of articles, covering a wide range of subjects, including congressional and presidential politics, foreign policy and national security, international economics, and legal issues.  Matthew's freelance writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Reader's Digest.

From 1997 to 2001, he served as a columnist for The Ottawa Citizen, the quality daily serving Canada's capital city, and in 1992 Longwood Academic Press published his book on the historical relationship between blacks and the Republican Party. The book was later cited in a comprehensive history of the Republican Party, published by Random House, as a definitive source on the relationship between blacks and the GOP.

A native of Lafayette, California, Matthew is a graduate of Wesleyan University and has pursued graduate work at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.  He is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and has been selected to attend Young Leader conferences by the American Council on Germany and the American Swiss Foundation.