Facilitating purposeful growth for leaders, forums and organizations.
Linda is a YPO Certified Forum Facilitator (CFF), an ICF-certified coach, an Upside Coaching Catalyst, and holds executive training from Harvard Business School. She works with individuals, forums, and executive teams, bringing a strong facilitation lens to how people think together, make decisions, and work through complexity.
Her coaching helps clients clarify what matters most, test ideas through action, and navigate personal and professional transitions with perspective and resilience. Sessions balance reflection with practical application, creating space for insight, accountability, and forward movement.
Linda provides strategic planning, communications, and management consulting to help organizations clarify priorities, strengthen execution, and navigate change. Her background in business operations, project management, and systems integration allows her to work comfortably with complex organizations, connecting strategy to practical delivery and real-world constraints.
She supports leaders and teams in translating ideas into clear plans, aligning people and systems, and sustaining momentum as initiatives move from concept to implementation.
Linda designs and facilitates forums, retreats, and team experiences for YPO, Harvard Business School forums, Ubuntu Circles, and executive teams. She is known for creating psychologically safe environments that support trust, healthy group dynamics, and substantive learning, enabling leaders to think clearly, challenge assumptions, and grow together over time.
Her work balances thoughtful structure with responsiveness in the room, allowing groups to engage honestly, deepen relationships, and translate insight into practical action.
Linda Schmidt is the Founder and Principal of Ubuntu Facilitation Group. She facilitates YPO Forums and Harvard Business School Alumni Forums, Ubuntu Circles, Leadership Brand retreats, executive and leadership teams across nonprofit and private enterprise. She brings more than two decades of experience in management consulting, facilitation, and leadership training and development.
Linda is a YPO Certified Forum Facilitator (CFF), a Certified Coach through the International Coaching Federation (ICF), and a Co-Active accredited coach trained through the Coach Training Institute (CTI). She is an Upside Coaching Catalyst informed by Theory U and leadership development practices, and holds a master’s degree in business along with leadership training from Harvard Business School.
Linda is known for creating high-trust, confidential environments. Her facilitation supports purposeful growth alongside practical outcomes for leaders and organizations.
Her background spans economics, industrial and organizational psychology, and business, with extensive experience in communications, branding, digital marketing, project leadership, and systems integration. This blend allows her to bridge strategy with execution while supporting complex human and organizational systems.
Having lived and worked in South Africa, the United States, and Canada, Linda brings seasoned judgment, cultural fluency, and a steady presence to her facilitation work. Her approach is informed by the Ubuntu leadership philosophy, the understanding that who we become is shaped through our relationships and responsibility to one another.
Her work brings together strong facilitation, leadership development, and systems thinking to support leaders and organizations in growing with clarity, responsibility, shared purpose, and sustained collective effectiveness.
Linda’s work is informed by a range of leadership methodologies, including a philosophy rooted in the ancient African concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu reflects the understanding that who we become is also shaped through our relationships and our responsibility to one another.
Often translated as “I am, because we are,” it speaks to leadership as a practice of care, integrity, and mutual respect.
In practice, Ubuntu leadership values trust, empathy, accountability, and shared ownership. It invites leaders to create environments where people can learn, contribute meaningfully, and support the wellbeing of the wider community.
Linda helps organizations to clarify direction and translate strategy into practical action. Her work blends management consulting with experienced project leadership, with a focus on execution with clarity, accountability, and momentum.
Linda works with individuals, forums and leadership groups, recognizing that strong organizations grow through personal leadership maturity and healthy group dynamics. Her facilitation and coaching creates safe, trusted environments that support psychological safety, deep learning and reflection, conscious decisions, and stronger collective capability.
Linda designs forums, retreats, and workshops, engage groups and individuals directly in their development. Experiential formats create space for deep reflection, co-creation, insight, ownership, supporting accountability and change, supporting the integration of learning into everyday leadership and work.
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