The People Behind
Peak Potential
We are leadership development practitioners with a shared conviction: the single most important thing a leader can build is an environment where people feel safe enough to tell the truth.
Our Mission
Everything we do starts from one belief: teams cannot learn, innovate, or perform at their best unless people feel safe enough to speak up, disagree, and admit when something isn't working. Psychological safety is not one item on our list. It is the foundation we build everything on. Our coaching, our workshops, and our consulting all begin by creating the conditions where honest conversations become possible.
Our Vision
Every workplace is a safe and inclusive space where people from all backgrounds can speak up, learn from conflict, and spark innovation together.
Meet the Team
Based in Vancouver and working with leaders across cultures, from North America to Japan. We believe the biggest untapped opportunity in leadership development is the space between cultures.
Matt Gates
Owner and Chief Learning Officer
Vancouver, Canada
Matt Gates is a highly experienced Leadership Development Specialist and ICF Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with more than 16 years dedicated to helping leaders and organizations thrive. His career spans healthcare, retail, telecommunications, and technology, where he has designed, facilitated, and coached leaders at every level.
At Vancouver Coastal Health, he built leadership capacity for one of Canada's largest health organizations. Prior to that, at Best Buy Canada and Yellow Pages, he designed leadership development programs combining coaching, emotional intelligence, and communication skills.
Matt is known for creating engaging learning environments where leaders feel both challenged and supported. His expertise includes emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, psychological safety, cross cultural communication, and coaching using the GROW model.
As the founder of Peak Potential, Matt brings a passion for continuous growth and a belief that leadership is a skill anyone can learn. Matt's work in Vancouver, one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world, has given him deep experience adapting leadership development for multicultural teams and multilingual workforces.
Jay Vergara, former co-owner
Matt founded Peak Potential in 2022. Jay joined him as co-owner in 2025 and helped build it up through 2026 before stepping away. Some of his earlier work is still here. He now writes at leadhuman.ai, his personal blog about AI and how to lead, learn and live humanly in an AI world.
What Guides Our Work
Every program we build, every workshop we facilitate, and every coaching conversation we hold is grounded in these principles.
Emotional Intelligence First
We ground everything we do in EQ. Leaders who understand themselves lead others with greater empathy, clarity, and impact.
Psychological Safety
Teams perform best when people feel safe to speak up, take risks, and learn from mistakes without fear of blame or judgment.
Inclusion and Belonging
We design every program to honor diverse perspectives, lived experiences, and cultural backgrounds so every voice is valued.
Evidence Based Practice
Our work is rooted in research: the GROW coaching model, ADDIE instructional design, and peer reviewed studies on what actually moves the needle.
Conflict as a Catalyst
We believe healthy conflict fuels innovation. We teach teams to navigate disagreement productively and turn tension into trust.
Continuous Growth
Leadership is not a destination. We build programs that foster lifelong learning, resilience, and adaptability for individuals and organizations alike.
Where We Work
From Vancouver to Tokyo, we partner with organizations across two continents. Whether in person or virtual, we bring the same energy, rigor, and care to every engagement.
Let's Build Something Together
Whether you want to strengthen your leadership pipeline, create a more inclusive team culture, or navigate cross cultural challenges, we would love to hear from you. Explore our services or read our latest thinking to learn more about how we work.
Start a Conversationhello@peakpotentialconsulting.com