In the world of executive recruiting, where transactions often trump relationships and speed overshadows substance, Gina Matteson stands as nothing but an icon. The Founder and CEO of GemTek has built more than a company, she has built a movement centered on one radical idea: that hiring should be rooted in human connection, ethical integrity, and unwavering truth.
Today, as GemTek scales with venture capital backing and prepares to launch ConnectAIve Intelligence 2.0, Gina is proving that the most powerful leaders aren’t those who avoid struggle, rather they’re the ones who transform it into their greatest strength.
From Childhood Dreams to Hard-Earned Wisdom
Gina’s relationship with leadership began long before boardrooms and balance sheets. She fell in love with business at the age of five. By the age of twelve, Gina was navigating the aftermath of sexual abuse, an experience that profoundly shaped her resilience, moral clarity, and lifelong commitment to justice and protection of others.
“My journey wasn’t easy,” she reflects. “But I never needed it to be. What I needed was strength. Clarity. And the ability to rise when everything around me said I shouldn’t.”
Those early years forged her instincts. She became fiercely protective, deeply intuitive, and uncompromising when it came to doing what was right. Trauma did not harden her. Instead, it sharpened her sense of justice and empathy. These traits now sit at the center of her leadership style.
Whether she is advising a company recovering from a mis-hire or guiding a candidate lost in the hiring maze, Gina shows up fully. She recalls one particular moment that encapsulates her approach: a man sent her a resume containing his passport number, his children’s ages, and a headshot, all red flags that would expose him to potential identity theft and bias.
“I had no job for him, but I called him anyway,” she says. “He needed someone to tell him the truth and help him protect his future. So, I rebuilt his resume from scratch.” When he asked why she would help when she had nothing to gain, her response was simple: “Because you deserve it. And I can.”
This is the foundation of Gina’s leadership philosophy; one that refuses to separate the personal from the professional, the vulnerable from the powerful.
Heart-Led Leadership in a Corporate World
For Gina, heart-led leadership isn’t a buzzword or a trend to capitalize on. It’s the only way she knows how to lead. She doesn’t compartmentalize her identity as a woman, a mother, a survivor, and a CEO. Every part of her story comes along with her into every boardroom, every client meeting, every difficult conversation.
“I’ve been through things that could have hardened me, but I chose not to let them,” she explains. “I turned them into my superpower.”
This approach challenges conventional wisdom about professional boundaries. Gina believes that real leadership doesn’t hide the past, it uses it. Her experiences have given her empathy, fire, and vision in equal measures. They’ve taught her that leadership rooted in compassion isn’t soft; it’s the most powerful force in business.
“When people feel seen, they show up differently,” she notes. “When they’re respected, they perform. When they’re led with heart, they don’t forget it.”
But heart-led doesn’t mean conflict-averse. Gina leads with truth, refusing to sugarcoat reality while also refusing to lead with ego. She serves with a desire to help people rise, and that philosophy extends throughout GemTek’s work culture.
She emphasizes, being heart-led doesn’t make her soft. It makes her unshakable.
The Crucible that Forged GemTek
After nearly two decades in recruiting, including almost a decade building a multi-million-dollar division inside a billion-dollar corporation, Gina faced a betrayal that would have ended many careers. The company she had poured everything into turned on her. What followed was a cascade of losses – legal battle, a divorce, the dismantling of the life she had built and loved.
“It shook everything: my career, my home, my family,” she recalls. “But I didn’t lose the woman I had become. That can never be taken from me.”
Gina fought for justice and won. That victory did more than close a chapter. It gave her clarity. She knew she would never again allow someone else to dictate how she leads, serves, or lives.
GemTek was born from that decision. Not as a rebrand or a pivot, but as a mission.
“GemTek isn’t a compromise,” Gina explains. “It’s how I’ve always wanted to show up for companies and candidates who deserve better.”
Today, GemTek is VC-backed, strategically scaled, and purpose-driven. Gina leads a team aligned with her values, serving clients who want to hire with intention. She is not easing into this chapter. She is fully committed.
Where Technology Meets Humanity
With the recruiting world increasingly dominated by automation and AI-driven platforms, GemTek occupies a distinctive position. The company was never built to blend in with the crowd of recruiting firms. It was built to raise the bar.
What sets GemTek apart, Gina explains, is simple: “We lead with ethics, precision, and human connection. We don’t chase transactions. We build trust. And we don’t cut corners just to close a deal. We align the right people with the right environments, so they stay, grow, and win.”
Central to this approach is GemTek’s proprietary system, ConnectAIve Intelligence. The platform demonstrates Gina’s nuanced understanding of technology’s role in hiring. She embraces AI for what it does well, processing data, revealing patterns, and improving efficiency, while setting firm boundaries around what it cannot do: replace the human heartbeat that makes hiring truly work.
“I’ve seen people hurt,” she says, her voice taking on an edge of urgency. “I’ve seen deepfakes manipulate vulnerable seniors. I’ve seen candidates get ghosted by companies hiding behind automations. Not on my watch. Not with me at the helm.”
GemTek uses AI the right way; guided by ethics, powered by experience, and centered on human connection. Machines don’t make the final call. That responsibility belongs to people who bring insight, intention, and integrity to every hire.
“Humans hire humans,” Gina declares. “That is the standard. And at GemTek, we protect that standard every day.”
A Voice for the Voiceless
Gina’s impact extends beyond the recruiting world through her book, A Thousand Masks, a fictionalized exploration of trauma and survival that draws from her own life experiences. However, the book wasn’t written as a healing exercise for Gina.
The trauma that shaped her early life surfaced fully when she was twelve. She carried that weight silently for years until her late twenties, when she finally released it, forgave her abuser, and refused to let that story control the rest of her life.
“When I wrote A Thousand Masks, I wasn’t writing from a place of pain. I was writing from a place of purpose,” she explains. “I wanted others to know they weren’t alone. I wanted someone, somewhere, to read it and think, ‘This wasn’t my fault. I am not the only one.'”
The timing was anything but convenient. COVID had just hit. The world was unraveling. GemTek had launched just ten days earlier.
“Apparently, nothing in my life is allowed to come easy,” she laughs.
But even amid that uncertainty, she felt called to help in the only way she knew how. So she wrote.
The true impact of the book revealed itself unexpectedly. During an executive interview, a woman paused and shared that Gina’s book gave her the courage to speak about a sexual assault she had never voiced before.
“That moment changed everything,” Gina says.
It united the author and the CEO. It showed her that leadership, storytelling, and healing could coexist. That her voice could hold space for others in ways she never imagined.
“I am Gina E. Matteson,” she says. “Author and CEO. And both parts of me lead with truth, strength, and heart.”
Building a Legacy That Outlasts
Looking ahead, Gina sees a future already in motion. GemTek is scaling rapidly with venture capital backing, building out a larger team, launching new client solutions, expanding into subscription-based models, and preparing to release ConnectAIve Intelligence 2.0. The company isn’t waiting for the recruiting world to catch up, it’s building what comes next.
“We’re here to transform hiring. Not dilute it. But elevate it,” she says. “Ethically, intentionally, and with real human connection at the core.”
Beyond GemTek, she plans more writing, more stage time, and more seats at tables where hard conversations happen. She’s creating books, content, and courses that help leaders hire better, lead stronger, and remember that people matter most. She is also simultaneously growing The Inner Shift program alongside Dan De Luis, helping executives and high performers reconnect with clarity and values.
When asked about the legacy she hopes to leave, Gina’s answer is characteristically direct: “I want people to say: ‘She always spoke her truth, even when it was really hard. She stood for justice, no matter the cost. She showed up when it mattered. She changed how we lead, how we hire, and how we see one another.'”
She pauses, then adds with quiet conviction: “I’m not here to just build a company. I’m building something that outlasts me.”
In Gina Matteson, Canada has found an iconic leader who proves that the strongest leadership doesn’t come from avoiding adversity it comes from walking through fire and emerging with your values not just intact but refined and strengthened. She is redefining what it means to lead with both precision and compassion, to build a tech-enabled company that never loses sight of humanity, and to create a legacy measured not in transactions but in transformation.
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Contact Gina Matteson on LinkedIn.
