The year ahead marks a pivotal chapter for Papillion native Matt DeBoer. A 2002 Papillion-La Vista High School graduate, DeBoer is stepping into a new global role as HDR’s Global Director for Transportation Architecture—overseeing the design of transit hubs and airport terminals for one of the world's largest employee-owned design firms.
HDR, founded in 1917 and 100 percent employee-owned, is recognized internationally for its work in healthcare, transportation, and infrastructure. For DeBoer, the scope is enormous, but the mindset remains grounded.
“A lot of the places I go, New York, for example, couldn’t be further from what Papillion is, so it’s really neat to go there,” Matt says. “But I’m still Matt DeBoer from Papillion. I’m still a Nebraskan at heart. Papillion—the nature of who we are as people, that Midwest sensibility and kindness—it’s well received wherever I go.”
That sensibility was formed early. Matt’s family moved to Papillion when he was a toddler, settling in the Hickory Hill neighborhood. Aside from his years studying architecture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Papillion has always been home.
Matt credits his parents, John and Gail, as early examples of leadership and perseverance. His father spent 35 years at OPPD, while his mother worked her way through many roles to become CEO of what is now Cobalt Credit Union. Still, architecture wasn’t always the plan.
“I wouldn’t say I knew I was going to be an architect from a young age,” Matt says. “I knew I was going to be a Husker before I knew I was going to be an architect.”
The path became clear at PLHS, where art and woodworking classes bridged creativity and precision.
“That’s where the creative side met the technical side,” he says. “Architecture is both how we shape the world and how we keep people safe. Those two worlds collide, and it was a natural fit.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree in 2007 and his master’s degree in 2009, Matt returned to Papillion, married his wife Leslie—a 2003 Monarch graduate—and built a life centered on family.
“We have three awesome kids: twin 13-year-olds, Hayden and Olivia, and the youngest, Sarah, who is six,” he says. “They really are the foundation of everything I do. They are the rock in my life.”
After a time at Leo A Daly, another Omaha-based firm, Matt joined HDR in 2014. One of his most visible and meaningful early projects stands right in Sarpy County: the Cobalt Credit Union headquarters at 72nd Street and Highway 370.
“That project launched my design career in many ways,” he says. “It’s such a big statement right there on that intersection.”
In 2015, Matt became managing principal of HDR’s Omaha architecture practice, later helping establish the firm’s Kansas City office and leading national community-focused work across cities like Phoenix, Vancouver, Raleigh, Chicago, and Denver.
Now, as Global Director for Transportation Architecture, Matt will work alongside HDR’s transportation teams in major cities including New York, Boston, Toronto, Denver, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.
Matt also gives back locally, serving on the United Way and Aksarben Foundation boards and helping lead projects like the new Food Bank for the Heartland headquarters and the renovation of Memorial Stadium—his “dream-come-true kind of project.”
With the travel and around-the-clock nature of his role, Matt says Papillion remains the anchor. In addition to his own parents, his in-laws, Ron and Cindy Racine, live just minutes away, keeping family close.
“It’s not a 9-to-5 job—it’s when you wake up to when you go to bed. You’re always on it… There’s a comfort here that makes this possible,” he says. “The quality of life in Papillion, the ease of getting around, life here is easier. That helps manage the chaos of taking on the world of architecture.”
For Matt, global reach never required leaving Papillion behind. It required carrying Papillion with him.
"I’m still a Nebraskan at heart. Papillion—the nature of who we are as people, that Midwest sensibility and kindness—it’s well received wherever I go." -Matt DeBoer