Matt Van Slyke

• Pivoting during the Great Resignation of the COVID-19 pandemic, Matt began a second career in public relations, handling media relations and ghostwriting articles for tech-company CEOs.
• While managing public relations for startups in quantum computing, his interest in the topic skyrocketed (alongside the stocks of publicly traded quantum companies).
• PR-agency life also introduced him to the emerging technologies of artificial intelligence.

Experience

Matt has been working as a professional writer for 20+ years. He has completed what he calls the West Coast Trifecta, twice moving from California to Washington state (both sides of the Cascades) and now calling Central Oregon home. In 2003, he began working as a news producer for local TV stations KOVR and KMAX and their digital media channels in Sacramento. Soon he was producing morning shows for FOX 13 Seattle and KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco, then evening and prime-time newscasts for the Bay Area's local news station, KRON 4 News. (News producers write most of what you hear and edit much of what you see on local TV news). In 2015, Matt began running newsrooms — in San Luis Obispo, CA, for NBC affiliate KSBY News and then at KAPP/KVEW-TV in Yakima/Tri-Cities, Washington as the company's news director. As a California-born newsman, Matt has experienced and/or covered numerous natural disasters, five mass shootings, four major wildfires, three destructive floods, two of the state's largest earthquakes, and one global pandemic as an essential worker. Matt now writes tech for SlashGear and news for The Nugget in his home base of Sisters, OR, a small community outside of Bend, where he plays "beer-league" hockey year-round.

Education

Matt has a bachelor's degree in communication design-media arts from California State University, Chico.