Donny Matteson, CPA


“Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment.” ~Mark Twain


DONNY’S TRAIL MIX


If I weren’t a CPA, I would be: I would play on the PGA tour, [but] realistically, probably would be an attorney.


One thing on my bucket list is: Run a full marathon


Who was your teen crush? Eliza Dushku


If you could be on any game show, what would it be? Press Your Luck


One movie I can watch over and over again is: Braveheart


If you could have an endless supply of anything, what would it be? Buffalo Wild Wings


One thing I won’t be caught dead doing is: Singing in public


Have you ever met anyone famous? When I was a kid, one of the Texas Rangers lived next door to me, so I got to meet a lot of baseball players.


For Donny Matteson, CPA, one of the most pivotal moments in his life came from being involved in the development of a charitable foundation named for a family member. “My fifth great grandfather was a


missionary from England in Jamaica. [He] established multiple churches…and, along with one of his deacons, Sam Sharpe, also helped abolish slavery in Jamaica,” said Matteson, a senior tax manager with Eide Bailly in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “On a family vacation in Montego Bay, we were able to visit the first church he established and were quite moved. Our family knew we wanted to do something to help and be involved with the church, but we did not know what that might be.” “We learned that one great need for the people of the church was access to education,” Matteson continued, explaining residents of Jamaica are required to pay tuition and fees to start high school and many families are unable to afford the expense. Subsequently, it’s harder for them to get jobs, leading to a continuing cycle of extreme poverty. “We saw a need and decided to address


it,” Matteson said. He and his family created the Burchell Youth Development Foundation to address the need. “Our first year, through donations, we were able to award two scholarships … in the three following years, we have been able to grow this foundation to give over 20 scholarships a year across four churches and are beginning to expand into college


22 CPAFOCUS March/April 2017


scholarships as some of our high schoolers are set to graduate.” “When you visit with the recipients and their families, the joy and gratitude they express is extremely moving and is something that I am very proud to be a part of,” he said. A University of Oklahoma graduate,


Matteson has been an OSCPA member for nearly five years and previously volunteered for the OSCPA Continuing Professional Education Committee. He attributes much of his success to his employer. “I have grown so much as a person both personally and professionally since I began my career. I believe that is largely attributable to the people I work with,” Matteson said. “Whether it has been moral support while taking the CPA exam or training I have received to help better serve clients, I feel that the lessons I have learned over the past eight years have given me the knowledge I need to do my job and help my clients on a daily basis.” Steven M. Corley, CPA, partner at


Eide Bailly in Norman, Oklahoma, said, “Donny has grown in his career, starting out as a staff associate and has taken advantage of the career growth opportunities he has been provided… Donny has demonstrated his ability to deal with complex tax situations and manages his client responsibilities very well. His clients and peers respect his leadership and the example he sets for others.”


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