Meet Matt
Matt Elliott spent 35 years leading at scale inside complex, high-pressure organizations. He served 12 years as President of Bank of America Michigan while also leading multi-state businesses across the Midwest and, later, one of the largest sustainability capital initiatives in U.S. banking.
As Midwest Regional Executive for Business Banking, Matt led 10 teams across nine states, growing loans, deposits and client relationships while expanding the organization and raising employee engagement. As Sustainability Executive for Commercial Banking, he helped deploy more than $35 billion in sustainable and transitional finance and activated 1,200 relationship managers, generating more than 25,000 sustainability conversations with middle-market companies.
His leadership extends beyond banking. Matt chaired the 2023 Mackinac Policy Conference and the Detroit Regional Chamber board. He currently serves in board and advisory roles across business, higher education, economic development and sustainability, and co-chairs Michigan State University’s Green and White Council.
Through Blue Lake Ideas, Matt advises CEOs, leadership teams and boards on strategy, leadership, growth and capital structure. He is also the author of the forthcoming Overloaded: Recapturing Leadership Capacity with the Power of 
™.
Matt earned his MBA in International Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his BA in Finance from Michigan State University’s Eli Broad College of Business and the MSU Honors College. He has also completed executive education in board governance and sustainability at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
At the peak of his career, Matt was managing three major roles at once. He knows what it feels like to perform at a high level while demands keep stacking up, capacity shrinks, and judgment starts to narrow. Recapturing that capacity changed how he leads and became the work of Blue Lake Ideas.
“I woke up that morning convinced I was having a heart attack. A few hours later, I learned it was a different kind of attack—a panic attack… That morning’s ER visit was not caused by a single crisis, but by too much life coming at me too fast for too long.
So in the end, my trip to the hospital bed wasn’t a failure. It was feedback.”
“I generally admire folks who are able to balance opposites and find ways to bring everyone into the story for a shared definition of winning.”
Integrate competing demands
Bring everyone into the story
Agree on what winning means
Winning means delivering on the promises we make to ourselves, the commitments we make to those we lead and serve, and the presence we owe the people we love.
The Power of 
™ is the philosophy. Intelligence™ is the practice. Together, they help us build the capacity to deliver with greater clarity, connection and courage.
That is the Capacity Advantage.
Matt partners with like-minded professionals to deliver workshops and advisory engagements.
Intelligence™ FrameworkA repeatable practice
The Power of becomes useful when we can put it to work. Intelligence™ gives leaders and teams three simple moves to create clarity, build connection and act with courage.
In a keynote, workshop or advisory engagement, the goal is the same: help teams integrate competing demands, define shared success, and move forward with confidence.
See the three moves →Build the capacity to perform and grow.
“When Matt makes an introduction, it comes with weight. When he offers guidance, it moves the needle.”
Find the right way in
Questions
Is Blue Lake Ideas the same as The Power of ?
Blue Lake Ideas is the firm. The Power of is the philosophy at its center, and Intelligence is the method that puts it to work, in a keynote, a workshop, an advisory engagement, or the book.
What experience informs the work?
Thirty-five years of leading at scale: 12 as President of Bank of America Michigan, multi-state leadership across nine states, and one of the largest sustainability capital initiatives in U.S. banking. It also includes the overload that came with that career, and the practice he built to recover from it.
Bring Matt to your next leadership event
Tell us who’ll be in the room and what they’re carrying. A conversation, not a booking.
Matt writes every week on Substack and in The Capacity Advantage on LinkedIn. Subscribe for new writing from Matt on building capacity.
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