The 2018 Rising Stars of the Profession: Matt Yates

Matt Yates entered consulting later than most because he took the time to start a business and pursue other ambitions immediately after college. "I'm continuously learning all the skills it takes to be successful as I pursue career progression in consulting," he says. "I'm most excited to work for a firm like North Highland, which values entrepreneurship. I get to pursue the types of projects and skills that interest me and I have freedom to pivot my focus based on my goals and interests in the future."

Since joining North Highland in 2014, Matt Yates has shown a relentless pursuit for innovative solutions to drive both top and bottom line growth for his clients. His sweet spot is bringing a business-strategy first mindset to the worlds of big data, small data, and everywhere in between. Yates has served a variety of clients in the Retail, E-commerce, CPG, and Hospitality industries.

He attributes much of his success to the work ethic and hopeless optimism instilled by his parents. "I grew up legitimately believing that, with enough hard work and dedication, I could achieve anything. Although such optimism often leaves me biting off more than I can chew, I never cease to learn from times I don't achieve all I imagined."

Yates was selected for the firm's leadership development program in 2016. He is also hyper-focused on fostering teaming and developing colleagues through encouraging an environment of productive feedback.

"Through my work developing a North Highland offering that utilizes machine learning to optimize ecommerce product detail page assets to improve the customer experience and purchase conversion, I've seen huge success in transferring skills to my colleagues as well as having hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue impact to North Highland's clients."