Workshop: AI in the Workplace - A Practical Guide for Business Leaders

Matt Symes, CEO & Founding Partner
Symplicity Designs
Matt Symes is the CEO and founding partner of Symplicity Designs. He has guided 600+ private and public-sector organizations through strategic transformation, unlocking over $1B in profitable growth and helping Symplicity earn and sustain B-Corp certification—with impact that places the firm among the global top decile for the triple bottom line. As a serial company builder, he has started, acquired, and scaled a diversified portfolio—from a specialty coffee roastery to professional services—giving him credibility that most consultants can only reference.

He is the AI Entrepreneur-in-Residence at UNB’s Technology Management & Entrepreneurship (TME) program, a transformation strategist, and an AI-first organizational architect. Matt’s point of view is direct: AI is no longer an IT project; it’s a management discipline. Since 2023, he and the Symplicity team have introduced practical AI to more than 300 organizational leaders. Their deeper deployments have produced millions of dollars in unlocked productivity and capacity by redesigning workflows, compressing cycle times, and instrumenting decisions with data. His playbook blends leadership behaviors, change mechanics, and hands-on systems integration so teams can ship value on Monday—not someday. 

His operating experience includes stepping in as COO to help scale a CPG firm from $20M to $155M in revenue, doubling a global IT firm’s revenue in less than three years, and has supported systemic performance improvements in education and healthcare. His grandfather was a roofer who started a roofing company and his heart lies with helping small business owners. That breadth informs how he mentors founders and executives: align on a compelling future, make the few hard choices that matter, and build an environment where execution becomes routine.

An award-winning CEO and award-winning educator, Matt was named Business Leader of the Year by the Halifax Chamber in 2021 for his role in helping the region navigate the Covid-19 pandemic and he has been recognized four times as Atlantic Canada’s Top 50 CEOs (2022–2025). Through keynotes, workshops, and his 12-month Levership™ cohort, he distills what works in the field into pragmatic tools leaders can use immediately to scale—without sacrificing their desired lifestyle. Offstage, you’ll find him enjoying his own espresso, logging miles as he works toward seven marathons on seven continents, and living a life of intention and adventure with his partner Emily and their two young daughters. Matt’s a business builder, a curious human, and proud girl dad—committed to showing up with purpose (and not just talking about it).