Cortex Leadership Consulting partners with leaders and their teams to solve their toughest people problems. Our interactive and customized approach is based on proven methods and practices to guide leaders to more effectively and efficiently reach their business objectives and desired outcomes.
Lynda McNutt Foster, Founder
Executive Leadership Consultant/Coach
Lynda coaches and consultants CEOs that are scaling their organizations and need reliable, contemporary, predictive people analytics to power their growth and value. Lynda was named a Business Icon by Valley Business Front Magazine and is a regular contributor for Forbes. She is the author of several books including Time Mastery: 7 Simple Steps to More Effective Outcomes available on Amazon and Audible, 4 Keys to More Effective Leadership.
Lynda recently published her newest research findings in the white paper, A Leader’s Guide to Getting More, Fresh, High-Quality Ideas from Their Teams.
She is a crowd favorite for her keynote speeches, and a sought-after executive team facilitator that makes learning fun and interactive. Her leadership coaching of CEO’s and their executive teams keeps her calendar and travel log full. She has conducted roughly 4,000 executive coaching sessions and trained/facilitated more than 10,000 corporate leaders in her career as a coach/consultant.
Lynda is a Certified Conversational Executive Coach, Certified Practitioner of TED* The Empowerment Dynamic, Certified TED* Facilitator and Coach, Certified Health Coach, School of Hilton Johnson, and graduated from Miami Dade College. Lynda was an expert commentator for Coffee with a Coach weekly on WFXR-TV, Fox 21/27 for more than 5 years.
Lynda’s clients have included: Real Chemistry, Haskell, Snow Peak, Orvis, Metis, Pen Air Credit Union, City of Roanoke, County of Roanoke, ValleyStar Credit Union, The Glebe, Warm Hearth Village, Harmony Senior Services, Home Instead Senior Care, Kissito/Pace Health Care (now Innovage), Carilion Clinic, Delta Dental VA/Corvesta, Excel Truck Group (VA, NC, SC), CMG Leasing, Federal-Mogul, Roanoke College, Roanoke Rescue Mission, MB Contractors, Better Building Works, Quick Fix Real Estate, HH Hunt, and many others.
Follow her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Allen Foster, CPBA, CPDFA
Principal Executive Coach
The merger of McNutt & Associates, Inc. with Cortex Leadership Consulting, created an opportunity to expand the consulting work Allen Foster had been doing with clients for more than 15 years in the areas of marketing strategies, advertising, and public relations. As President of the boutique advertising agency, McNutt & Associates, Inc., Allen managed more than $5 million a year for clients like Rappaport Management Group who owns shopping centers like Towers Shopping Center, Central Park in Fairfax, VA, and more than 20 others, along with Virginia Furniture Market, Simpson Funeral Home, Altizer & Altizer Law Firm, Home Instead Senior Care and many others.
Allen spent the first 10 years of his career in retail management for giants (at that time … he’s old now) K-Mart and Staples, eventually rising to be one of the youngest store managers in the Staples chain. Allen was charged with multi-million renovation projects and new store openings as the operations management of stores ranging from $2M – $10M in annual sales.
As the President of Cortex, Allen serves clients through consulting sessions focused on marketing, advertising and optimizing onboarding success of new hires, along with co-facilitating select leadership workshops on DISC – he is a Certified Professional Behaviors Analyst (CPBA) and Certified Professional Driving Forces Analyst (CPDFA) through Target Training International – and the Currency of Trust. He remains an experienced and trusted media buyer for some Cortex clients.
Allen graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. He is married to Lynda McNutt Foster (Cortex’s CEO) and father to Melody McNutt. He is a trivia wiz, a serious fan of Virginia Tech football, avid reader of books on history and science, and frequently can be found with Lynda walking or running on the Roanoke Greenway.
Jeanne (Jackson) Newby
Principal, Sr Consultant, HR Strategist, Leadership Coach, Virtual Trainer
Jeanne is a dynamic HR leader with over 20 years of business and HR operations with fortune 500 companies. Jeanne provides insight into how to structure and maximize the effectiveness of the HR function to develop talent and align to the company vision and goals.
Jeanne is passionate about coaching top talent, helping managers foster a highly engaged, motivated workforce, and developing employees to achieve their full potential.
Jeanne is highly proficient in using tools and technology to assess leaders and their teams, providing feedback and coaching to increase communication and teamwork that drive desired business outcomes.
Jeanne is a lead facilitator for the EPIC Leadership Program. This contemporary, fast-paced, interactive experience provides a launching pad for leadership learning for the highest engaged team members in an organization looking to lead in the future. Provided in small group coaching experiences, Jeanne facilitates a virtual experience that can propel ambitious professional careers forward.