Linda & Steve Carter Bios
Linda Carter
Linda Carter was born on May 8, 1957, and she grew up in Atlanta, New Jersey, Ohio, and Massachusetts. She graduated from Endicott College with an Associate’s degree in Retail Merchandising and from Kent State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Marketing. She began her career in Advertising at Reed & Barton Silversmiths but eventually shifted her focus to fundraising, working at the Jimmy Fund of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and United Cerebral Palsy.
Through her love of working out, Linda met a future colleague at a gym. She learned about a job opening at Reebok, which led to the start of her 30-year career as the Northeast Regional Sales Promotion Manager. Linda moved on to various corporate leadership positions, including National Accounts Marketing Director. While presenting Reebok’s new Pump products to FootLocker in NYC, she spent a weekend with friends in Connecticut, snow tubing at a local middle school.
Due to her previous experiences with skiing and triathlons, Linda had fears of falling or going headfirst. She decided to sit cross-legged on the tube. However, after hitting a small mogul, she was thrown into the air and landed on her back, resulting in a T12/L1 incomplete spinal cord injury. She spent several months rehabbing at the West Roxbury, Massachusetts VA hospital. Eventually, Linda returned to Reebok in a wheelchair. Reebok was extremely supportive in ensuring that she could continue her work. As the Director of Global Creative Marketing, Linda led a ten-person team in graphic design, photography, retail marketing, and video production. She was able to travel both domestically and internationally.
Linda’s workouts became limited to walking with long-legged braces and a walker. Unfortunately, she realized this method wasn’t going to work for her. She couldn’t move fast enough and experienced fears of falling, along with carpal tunnel and shoulder pain. This situation forced her to accept life in a wheelchair.
Linda retired from Reebok in 2016. She now paints large-scale abstracts, and she made her first sale this week! Her interests include reading, world events, and caring for her cats, George Clooney and Mad Maxx. She also sponsors elephants, giraffes, and rhinos at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. Additionally, Linda enjoys spending time with her family, including her brother Steve, sister-in-law Amanda, niece Samantha, and nephew Drew.
Steve Carter
Steve Carter is a senior leader with demonstrated success and breadth of experience at several Fortune 100 companies, a large private equity-backed firm, a minority-owned small business, and the U.S. Army. He has successfully led major strategic transformations and driven detailed operational results across a broad range of organizations. Steve currently serves as a Senior Business Strategist for Generational Consulting Group, helping small to medium-size businesses grow revenue and profits.
Steve’s leadership experience includes senior supply chain leadership roles at Wal-Mart, Target, Reebok, Honeywell International, Case New Holland, and a private equity-backed pet retail chain named Pet Retail Brands. His most recent role prior to his current consulting position was Chief Operating Officer at a $20M minority-owned student transportation services company based in Minneapolis. Throughout his career, Steve has successfully implemented transformational strategic initiatives, driven process management disciplines, led innovative operational improvements, improved cash flow management, and developed highly effective leadership development cultures and engaged teams.
Steve retired from the Army with the rank of Colonel after a combined 23 years of active duty and reserve component service, and currently serves as an Army Reserve Ambassador. Steve is a graduate of the Wharton School (MBA), University of Pennsylvania (Master of Systems Engineering), and the United States Military Academy at West Point (BS in Engineering). He has served in leadership roles on multiple non-profit boards of directors and professional industry associations. For relaxation, Steve enjoys golf, travel, exercise, serving his church and spending time with family and friends. He and his wife, Amanda, live in Dennis, MA and they have two grown children who live in the Northeastern US.