Forty Under 40: Matthew Dearnley

Matthew Dearnley, 31, said his interest in deal making brought him to real estate.

After graduating in 1996 with a bachelor’s degree in history from Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., Dearnley spent three years working as a paralegal in New York City for mergers and acquisitions firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett.

It was there he realized that he wanted to put deals together.

“It was hundreds of millions of dollars in deals that they were doing,” Dearnley said of the law firm. “This was during the dot-com boom.”

He earned his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Miami in 2002.

Dearnley then moved to Little Rock to work as a vice president for his father-in-law, John Flake, at Central Properties Inc.

Dearnley calls Flake and Brandon Rogers, managing partner of Orion Capital Partners, his mentors.

“They are the ones that have taken me under their wings and have showed me how to put deals and investors together,” Dearnley said.

He calls the new $13 million Johnson Clear Creek apartment complex his biggest achievement so far.

Dearnley serves on the Salvation Army board in Fayetteville and the Centurian Circle at the Centers for Youth and Families in Little Rock.