Matthew Jayes [RP 2026]

First name: Matthew ;
Middle name:  ;
Last name: Jayes ;

Member: Resident patron member ; 
Begin: 2026 ;
End: n/a ;

Biography:

Matthew started collecting art in the early 1990s and hasn’t stopped—not even in 2014, when he broke one of his four rules for collecting: only buy if there is a place to hang it. He eventually solved this problem by giving works from his collection to friends on permanent loan. In fact, the happy twists of fate set in motion by one of the approximately two dozen works he loaned led to his becoming a club member.

Originally from Western New York, he moved to Manhattan in 1989. After graduating from SUNY Buffalo with a B.S. in Business Administration, he applied to every retail management training program he could find, receiving no interview invitations until one day a bank called and invited him to interview for a role in an industry to which he hadn’t submitted a single application. He was quickly hired, beginning a career in banking and financial services that would span more than 30 years.

His long tenure included eight years at Chase Manhattan Bank and 21 years at Merrill Lynch/Bank of America, where he spent most of his career as a mid-level technology manager. He retired in April 2025 and has since taken up knitting, expanded an already active travel schedule, and taken many steps to trim away things he no longer needs to do.

He is highly organized—the value of lists cannot be overstated—and is notoriously handy. He has been partnered with Henry Ha since 2015, and the two married in 2020.