Jenny is the founder and CEO of Bridge Innovate. For more than 25 years, she has partnered with senior executives around the world to build leadership skills, innovate business and strategy, and mobilize change using the best of design, innovation, and management consulting methods.
Recent client projects include strategic planning for the CFO of a Fortune 500 company, cultivating leadership and team development with the executive team of a multi-billion dollar manufacturing company, strategic design for a logistics company aiming to accelerate their growth from $700M to $1B, and coaching for Morehouse College’s Accelerating Growth Program for High Growth Minority Entrepreneurs.
She is master certified in a number of innovation and leadership areas including IDEO's design thinking methodology, Strategic Foresight, ExperienceChange, and Covey’s Leadership Foundations. In addition, she’s certified to lead a range of psychometric assessments such as Everything DiSC, Talent Smart 360, Change Style Indicator, and the Five Behaviors of a High-Performing Team. She is also a seasoned executive coach.
Prior to founding Bridge Innovate, Jenny served for years as the Americas Chief Learning Officer and as the Global Director of Knowledge, Learning and Methods Innovation for Cap Gemini/Ernst & Young. In that time, she was responsible for new service innovation with a $30 million budget and a portfolio of more than 100 innovation development projects. She also led national executive talent development for organizations such as Prudential and Kaiser Permanente. Jenny is a graduate of the University of Georgia with advanced studies in leadership under the direction of Dr. John Kotter of Harvard University.
With a passion for social responsibility, Jenny founded Innovation for Good and Bright Spark to provide free programs to ignite creative confidence for students, educators, and community leaders. She is an RSA Fellow, founder of the RSA US Student Design Awards, and founding supporter of the Bill Moggridge Awards. Jenny also serves her community as a member of Rotary International.
After years of living and working in Europe and across the United States, Jenny now calls Lookout Mountain, Georgia home. She and her husband Charlie enjoy spending their free time with their son Chase and daughter Katie.
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– Miller Welborn, President, Welborn and Associates
"I can honestly say that I have participated in 30+ strategic planning sessions and initiatives, and I have NEVER seen a better facilitator than Jenny! The preparation, research, delivery, collaboration, energy and product are incredible. Bridge Innovate and Jenny are really onto something here."
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– Myra Tatum, Chief Financial Officer, Pointer Management Company
“I really think that Jenny Whitener is one of the best facilitators that I have encountered.”
– Corinne Hill, Executive Director, Chattanooga Public Library
“Jenny and her team were instrumental in helping the library reposition itself as a 21st Century library. She worked closely with me and high-level staff to develop a strategic plan development program that would be inclusive of our board and community. She skillfully led the group keeping everyone on track and focused.”
