Hey there!

My name is Rex Le Chevalier and I’m a professional coach who worked in the games industry for over 12 years. My brand as an employee and now as a coach has always been ‘humanity’. I want to build a bridge with you, see you as a whole person - your strengths, your desires, and your insecurities. For coaching to be effective, you will need to be vulnerable with me. And so, I want to offer you my story, with my personality, my doubts, my successes and failures, as a way to connect with you and build a foundation of trust.

I started working in games as an AI programmer at Ubisoft Montreal in back in 2012 after graduating from McGill with a Computer Science degree. It was a dream come true and I can still remember the absolute joy I felt on my first day. I loved my time at Ubisoft and spent almost 7 years there, honing my skills as a software engineer and working on projects like Rainbow Six, Child of Light, and For Honor. I After reaching senior level an a programmer, I worked hard for a year to get promoted to a management role. I had always valued leadership and wanted more of a balance between using my tech skills and using my people skills!

Around 2018, I felt a new dream arise - I had been really inspired by Jesse Schell’s GDC talk about studio leadership and I discovered an aspiration to make my own studio someday. I didn’t feel like I was going to learn the skills necessary to make that a reality by staying in AAA, so I joined the Montreal-based indie studio Thunder Lotus to head up the programming team of their highly ambitious and innovative new project 33 Immortals. Working in such a small team, I had the chance to wear multiple hats and touch a much larger scope, which I loved, but I also felt the pressure that comes when you have to make a lot with very little resources. I got hit with a serious health issue and needed to step back. When I recovered, I had realized that this was no longer the place for me.

I was about to start up my new studio when Quantic Dream Montreal opened shop. They were looking for an Associate Programming Director for their new Star Wars Eclipse game. I felt like it was a match made in heaven - Quantic Dream’s exquisite mature storytelling with Star Wars’ rich lore. I also wanted to see what an intermediate-sized studio would feel like - I hoped there would be more risk-taking than in AAA, but also more resources and breathing room than in indie. Working at a director level at an organization that was scaling fast was fascinating. I loved tackling large and complex organizational problems about how to reconcile two very different work cultures and methodologies (Paris-Montreal), as well as all the large-scale technical challenges for a project that was projected to take over 6 years to ship. However, over the years, it became clear to me that some issues could not be resolved, and I felt myself slipping out of alignment with the executives. It was time to part ways.

I didn’t know what to do next. I felt burnt out from games. I felt like I needed a change. So I explored. I got certified as a personal trainer. I tried coaching without any official training. I did management consulting for a non-profit. I kept working on a few small game projects here and there. It was all fun and rewarding, but I wasn’t making enough to pay the bills.

I had also signed up for a coaching program at Concordia University. To be honest, even though I’d received excellent coaching through my last job, I still felt a bit skeptical about coaching. What would I learn that I didn’t already know from my years as a manager and director? What value could coaching truly bring, with so many people doing it without any certifications? I’m happy to report that what I’ve learned through this program has transformed the way I see coaching, leadership, and relationships at large. I’m now a believer, firmly convinced that coaching is an incredibly powerful way to drive change and attain higher levels of self-actualization.

I’ve identified 4 areas I want to focus my coaching in:

  • performance improvement: as a manager, I was always passionate about helping my team grow. I love taking obscure HR evaluation grids and vague feedback and transforming them into concrete actionable steps to help you progress.

  • leadership and management: leaders have huge impact and responsibility towards their team and the project. They often have to deal with a lot of pressure, and they have to make tough calls. These are jobs that often require expertise in both people skills and hard skills. I’m here to help you develop your skills, empower your team, and improve your results.

  • career support: sometimes work can feel really hard and take up a lot of space in our lives. As a high achiever, I’ve pushed myself too hard more than once and had to evolve my relationship to work. And sometimes, work doesn’t love us back and we lose our job. That can feel really scary, disorienting, and hopeless. I can help you navigate the tough times and move forward with a clear head.

  • students and recent graduates: it’s rough out there for juniors. There aren’t nearly as many jobs as there used to be, and AI is changing the field even further. Coaching can improve your chances so that when the right opportunity comes along you’ll be able to seize it.