Wilbur Matthews is one of the founders and the resident pickleball fanatic at Portside Pickle in Pensacola, FL. Wilbur’s pickleball journey started with a plywood paddle on an asphalt court with a chicken wire fence at Camp Longhorn where he was the 1983 3rd term pickleball champ. While not in the 70’s and not in Washington state, Wilbur thinks this lends him some claim on OG pickleballer status. After a 30-year hiatus, Wilbur and his wife reluctantly picked up a paddle to play this great game with a stupid name in 2017 and have played 3 times a week every week since, made a whole new set of friends, and regularly dropped everything to get in a game. Prior to going all-in on pickleball, Wilbur was in the investment management business, founding Vaquero Global Investment in 2007 and managing various funds and strategies focused on emerging market  bonds and Fin-Tech. Wilbur has over 30 years of experience in finance and emerging markets, spanning multiple asset classes and is more than happy to share his war stories and dispense unsolicited investment advice on the pickleball courts. Prior to founding Vaquero, Wilbur was a Portfolio Manager with AIG, where he built one of the largest EM credit efforts on Wall Street and structured numerous first-of-their kind financings.  Prior to AIG, Wilbur was part of JP Morgan Chase's Institutional Investor #1 ranked EM Research Team where he was Sr. Economist for several Latin countries and a high-flying international investment banker. Wilbur received his BA in Third World Studies and History from the University of the South at Sewanee, TN in 1994, is the proud father of 3 great kids, serves on the Board and Executive Committee of the San Antonio Zoo and enjoys photography, kayaking, fishing, cooking steak, and making the perfect margarita in his spare time.