![]()
Matt Waters is a CPA with 20+ years of lease and energy accounting experience. He currently serves as the Director of Lease Accounting and Sustainability at CoStar Real Estate Manager and has helped over 1,000 companies streamline lease administration, lease accounting, and ESG reporting.
He is a leading expert on lease accounting and his insights have been featured by Bloomberg, Reuters, Accounting Today and other top trade publications. Matt is a frequent speaker at lease management, real estate, and accounting events such as The CoreNet Global Summit, The NRTA National Conference, BlackLine’s Beyond The Black and more.
Before joining CoStar, Matt led lease and energy accounting teams at American Tower and The Home Depot. American Tower is one of the largest REITs in the world, with over 100,000 leases.
While at The Home Depot, Matt oversaw a project to consolidate the accounting for thousands of leases into one central area to streamline the flow of information and prepare for ASC 842 lease accounting changes.
Also at The Home Depot, Matt discovered the company was losing $6M worth of wooden pallets annually. This was a case of double materiality because it hurt the company financially and it hurt the environment. Matt identified discrepancies, raised awareness, presented a solution, assembled a cross functional team, and resolved.
Matt holds a bachelor's degree in accounting from Auburn University and an MBA from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In his personal life, Matt is a devoted husband, father to three teenage boys and an avid runner. He has completed 10+ running events at the marathon distance or longer including a 100-mile ultramarathon. In addition to running, he enjoys spending time outdoors hiking, biking, kayaking and camping.