November 20th Event Recap

On November 20th, ACG Pittsburgh and the NACD Three Rivers Chapter hosted Joseph Bartolacci, President & CEO of Matthews International, for an engaging and insightful keynote session.

Joe walked attendees through the company’s extraordinary transformation—from its beginnings in 1850, when John Dixon Matthews opened a small engraving and stamping shop in Pittsburgh, to its growth into a diversified, publicly traded global enterprise. Over the years, Matthews International expanded from bronze memorials and funeral-care products into precision technologies, advanced industrial solutions, and brand services. Today, the company operates across two major segments—Industrial Technologies and Memorialization—and generates more than $1.5B in annual revenue.

The discussion took a particularly compelling turn as Joe addressed the company’s navigation of COVID-era challenges in the casket business and the headline-making DBE (dry-battery-electrode) technology dispute with Tesla. After years of collaboration, tensions escalated in 2024 when Tesla sought exclusivity, leading to arbitration and a subsequent lawsuit. In February 2025, the arbitrator ruled in Matthews’ favor, affirming the company’s ownership rights and longstanding DBE expertise.