The 2025 SPEC Presidential Award: Mat Colgrove

A Problem Solver at Heart

If there’s one trait that best characterizes Mat Colgrove, this year’s Presidential Award winner, it’s being a problem solver. Even when he’s taking time off from solving customer problems at NVIDIA or working through benchmark and operational challenges at SPEC, he relaxes by playing challenging space simulation and strategy-based video games like Stationeers and Crusader Kings, which require analytical and problem-solving skills. Now that’s dedication!

A major influence on Mat was his father’s work with the US Air Force’s Space Division. Mat watched his father help solve the mystery of the Challenger explosion in 1986 and 1987 – and then lead a new approach to space travel – smaller, dependable craft to take things into space – which is exactly the approach private companies are using today.

Graduating from college in 1992 with a BS in business, Mat explored his options but soon realized his interest in computing could lead to a more rewarding career. He went back to school for a degree in Computer Science and was quickly recruited by The Portland Group (PGI), a company creating compilers for high-performance computing, to do quality assurance and testing. His problem-solving skills were immediately put to use as he ran benchmarks and analyzed the results to ensure compilers were working properly. He also spent much of his time in customer support where, of course, he helped users solve their various problems. Eventually, he even solved the company’s ongoing customer service communications issue by setting up a user forum that streamlined customer interactions.

PGI was Mat’s introduction to SPEC and the SPEC CPU benchmark, and in 2005, when PGI decided the company should participate in SPEC, Mat was chosen for the task, launching a parallel career that continued after NVIDIA bought PGI and created the NVHPC compiler team, where Mat became a Dev Tech Software Engineer, a position he still holds today.

A Brilliant Career at SPEC

Mat’s initial involvement with SPEC was ensuring PGI's compilers were compatible with the SPEC CPU 2006 benchmark, but the more SPEC work Mat did, and the more camaraderie he found with the representatives from competing companies, the more rewarding his work with SPEC became. In 2010, he joined the SPEC High Performance Group (HPG), contributing to the SPEC OMP 2012, SPEC ACCEL, SPEChpc 2021, and SPECaccel 2023 benchmarks, and in 2018, he became HPG's release manager.

In 2019, Mat took on more leadership responsibilities, becoming a SPEC Board member. His early roles were as Inspector of Elections and Awards committee member, which continue today, but in 2020, he also took on the crucial and very time-consuming role of Vice President of Operations. In this role, Mat manages all of SPEC’s staff and operations, and he was instrumental in ensuring the smooth transition of EEMBC to the new Embedded Group.

As if this weren’t enough, Mat also became NVIDIA’s representative to the OSG Steering Committee in 2022 and then Communications Committee Chair in 2023. In this latter role, he facilitated the SPEC website redesign project, helping to reconcile all the different visual and backend design opinions. He also leveraged his business background to launch a new PR and branding effort, creating new ways to reach out to SPEC members and communicate the SPEC mission to the industry and media. His strategies have included launching the Inquisitive Benchmarker newsletter and leveraging social media outlets and blogs.

Finally, Mat has worked closely with SPEC staff and the SPEC Treasurer to ensure timely and streamlined financial reporting, and he became a valued advisor to both the SPEC President and the SPEC Board, contributing significantly to the SPEC Policy effort and becoming one of the first directors to obtain approval for a major policy section.

Beyond Technology

Having been brought up in an Air Force family, Mat moved around a lot as a child, including to Virginia, California, and Colorado, before settling in Oregon. It was likely in Colorado Springs that weekend trips into the mountains led to Mat’s love for hiking, which remains his primary weekend activity today and drives many vacation decisions that he and his wife make.

The Value of SPEC for a Persistent Problem Solver

Like many SPEC members, Mat feels strongly that working on computing benchmarks is an opportunity to make a vital contribution to the future of the computing industry – and to a world that now depends so heavily on that technology. But SPEC also presents Mat with an opportunity to be creative and innovative and work collaboratively with other creative thinkers to solve the challenges presented by benchmarking. Even the arguments around different technical approaches are fun, and the common ground that’s reached leads to better solutions that he’s really proud of. And because he participates in SPEC by choice, he feels the time and the effort put into it pays him back tenfold in terms of personal satisfaction and growth.

Congratulations Mat on receiving the 2025 SPEC Presidential Award!