Linda Shaffer-Vanaria’s personal mission is to help people and organizations be calibrated and ready to engage uncertainty and disruption with clarity, confidence, and comfort. She is a #1 international best selling author, keynote speaker, thought leader, and executive coach. Among others, she has been interviewed by World Champion Quarterback, Joe Theismann; the original shark on Shark Tank, Kevin Harrington, and the Queen of Selling on T.V., Forbes Riley.
Linda’s goal is to empower leaders to face the breadth of challenges in today’s volatile world with courage, ingenuity, and strategic focus. From coaching and consulting 1,000+ leaders in a breadth of global organizations such as Royal Dutch Shell, ABB, Life Technologies, Acumen International Australia, and The Defense Logistics Agency, Linda has found that there is an increasing need and hunger for precise approaches to strategic thinking and decisive action.
Linda acquired and honed her expertise in Edge Performance from her 20+ year career and experiences as one of the first women U.S. Navy Test Pilots and Squadron Commanders. Linda understands first hand what it means to push the edge. Her signature story, 2.5 Seconds to Live: A Leaders Guide, recounts her personal experience in surviving the crash of a high performance military jet airplane in which after pulling the airplane's ejection handle to initiate seat ejection, the seat did not fire, with Linda finding herself still inside a doomed airplane, literally with only a few seconds remaining until impact. This experience inspired and motivated Linda to create models and approaches to help leaders with the Edge experiences they face in their careers and daily lives.
Following Linda’s tenure as a Naval Officer, she worked as a member of an elite team of leadership and performance development professionals building global leadership bench-strength and business acumen capability throughout the reaches of a global oil company. She then established her own consulting company, Enterprise Coaching of Carlsbad, and is currently celebrating 15+ years of service to global organizations and leaders.
Linda’s outside interests span Dachshunds, Harley Davidson motorcycles, artwork, cooking, and family time.