Gary Matthews

About Me

Top Issues

I began my career in finance as a tax consultant with an international accounting firm in 1979, became a CPA in 1981, and I was content, for a while. Over time, however, there were things that troubled me:

Many of my clients were greedy and I didn't really like them.
Many of my clients were financially successful but unhappy and unfulfilled.
My expertise was in an increasingly complex and almost incomprehensible tax law.
I was an integral part of a financial system and economy that works extremely well for some and not well at all for many others.

My early mid-life crisis arose out of two core questions: Is there a better way to do business? Is there a better way for me to do business?

These questions led me to graduate studies in seminary, but instead of being ordained a minister I studied and wrote about economic justice in a field called social ethics, in which I earned a PhD. In the middle of my career, with a background in taxes and financial planning and a newly minted PhD in social ethics, I now asked myself, “What do I really want to be and do in the world?”

I wanted to stay in business, but in the right kind of business.
I wanted to work with people who care about others and the planet.
I wanted to work with people I liked and for whom I had genuine respect.
I wanted to do something I was passionate about.
I wanted to do something important and that would contribute to a better world for everyone.

My answer was SRI. I began my practice in 2000, a practice that has now become SRI Investing LLC. It’s a thriving practice filled with clients who care – care about themselves, their families, people they don’t even know, and about the planet. These are the people (and organizations) with whom I want to be associated.

Together, we do something very important. We invest our financial resources in our collective future together in the kind of world in which our children and grandchildren will be able to thrive.