Matt was born and raised in Chico, California and is the youngest child of Ralph & Marilee Meuter. He has two older brothers (Mark & Mike). Most of Matt's education has been in the Chico area: he attended Sierra View Elementary School, Chico Junior High and Chico Senior High School.

After graduating from high school, Matt attended UC Davis for two years before transferring to CSU Chico to pursue a business degree. His option was in Accounting and he graduated magna cum laude. Matt also received a Masters of Business Administration from CSU Chico.

Matt spent four years at Arizona State University where he received a Ph.D. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing in 1999. While at ASU, he received several research fellowships and received the Teaching Excellence Award from the Department of Marketing as well as the Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Graduate College. After graduating from ASU Matt taught at Villanova University, which is a private Catholic school outside of Philadelphia. He has been teaching at CSU Chico since Fall 2000.

While at Chico State Matt has continued his prolific research and was named the College of Business Outstanding Faculty Member (2002/2003) as well as the Outstanding Educator at CSU Chico by the Chico Rotary (Spring 2005). Matt is a Center for Services Leadership Research Fellow (Arizona State University) and was recently named the Chevron IT Faculty Fellow at CSU Chico. Other CSU Chico College of Business Awards include the Service Excellence Award (2006) and the Research Excellence Award (2007).

In the summer of 1993 Matt married his high school sweetheart, Pamela Hagen. They have one daughter, Madison Lane (born 3/25/00) and one son, Carson Riley (born 5/4/02). When not working, Matt enjoys any type of outdoor activity such as biking, tennis, running, swimming, basketball, hiking, and disc golf. He has run many competitive races, and recently completed several triathlons. He and his wife ran the San Diego Rock 'N Roll Marathon. His goal is to finish a Half IronMan Triathlon (swim 1.2 miles, bike 56 miles, run 13.1 miles) in the next five years. One of his favorite outdoor adventures was hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon with his wife, camping for the night and then hiking back out the next morning. Matt is an avid sports fan, who loves the "hometown" teams of the Giants, Kings and 49ers. When not working, Matt loves to spend time with his family, especially playing with his children. Here are a few (unfortunately old) family photos from 2006: