2024 Men of the Year: Matthew B. Suarez

With a career marked by leadership roles and a commitment to community enhancement, Matthew B. Suarez, vice president and portfolio manager at Central Trust Co., says the bulk of his successes are driven by his constant craving for learning. And he’s not done yet – with three credit hours shy of his third bachelor’s degree, this time in business administration from Drury University, Suarez is hoping to take his life’s learnings and find a role in higher education teaching. 

“It is my ultimate goal to become a part-time adjunct faculty member at one of the local colleges or universities,” he says.

Teaching comes naturally to Suarez. In 2021, he was tasked by Central Trust Co. to oversee the company’s transition to a new trading and reporting software.

“I was asked to become the primary supervisor of this program and was tasked with training all 120 staff members during the implementation period of its rollout,” he says.

The project, which spanned throughout 2023, took him to seven offices across two states hosting in-person trainings.

In addition to leading through job training, Suarez has taken on multiple mentoring roles, including co-founding a job shadowing program between employees of Central Trust and Central Bank. He says the goal is to help bridge the gap between the two entities, expand connections and promote career development.

“The founding co-worker and I were nominated for and won the Legendary Employee Achievement Program award for this initiative, an internal award nominated by and voted on by fellow co-workers,” he says.

Suarez considers the program a success, with one of the first attendees applying to a role across departments, moving from banking to the trust side: “She was hired on as the newest employee in our department after completing the first round of that training.”

Suarez also mentored a co-worker’s son for the past six years, starting the process when his mentee was a senior in high school, helping him decide a college studies path and eventually helping him in his post-graduate career as an officer at a local bank.

As the current president of Rotary Club of Springfield, Suarez continues his mentorship role, sponsoring three individuals as new members.

“In the last four years of being a member, I have sponsored a total of eight new members, six of which are young professionals. Most have gone on to become chairs or board members in the club,” he says.

Through the Rotary Club of Springfield, Suarez says working on the Roseann Bentley Musical Playground has been one of his proudest achievements. Reaching out to the other five Rotary clubs in Springfield, Suarez was able to combine funds, raising 50% of the funds needed by the Springfield-Greene County Park Board and Community Partnership of the Ozarks to open the playground.

“This collaboration is not something that happens very often amongst the clubs,” Suarez says. “The biggest treat was getting to speak at the ribbon cutting on behalf of the five clubs with Roseann in attendance.”