Beyond IQ and EQ:
The Power of CQ for Leaders
Understand the unique roles of IQ, EQ, and CQ in today’s global world and how they affect leadership. In this webinar, you’ll discover why Cultural Intelligence (CQ) is the key differentiator for leaders navigating diverse teams, and learn actionable strategies to build inclusion, drive innovation, and lead with impact across cultures.
Speakers
Cortney Schaefer
Vice President, Finance and Operations, Cultural Intelligence Center
Cortney Schaefer has over 30 years of business experience and a broad financial and business consulting background, with work spanning manufacturing, technology innovation, healthcare, and nonprofit sectors. She has partnered with privately owned, multi-generational organizations as well as publicly traded companies, serving both domestic and international clients. Throughout her consulting career, Cortney has frequently assumed short- to mid-term director and executive roles, supporting organizations through growth initiatives, consolidation efforts, process implementation, and major business transitions. She attributes her professional success to a deep curiosity about people and a keen understanding of what shapes their perspectives and drives their actions. Although she joined the CQ Center in June 2024, Cortney recognizes that she had been applying the principles of Cultural Intelligence long before she formally understood its definition or influence.
An accountant by education, Cortney identified early in her career that data is only valuable when it is clearly understood and meaningfully applied. She developed the ability to anticipate and bridge gaps in perspective and communication, translating complex financial and operational information into insights that resonate with diverse stakeholders. This capability extended into her work in information technology, where she served as a liaison between business teams and software developers to design custom, proprietary systems tailored to highly technical operational needs. Cortney has supported entrepreneurs in launching their first ventures and has also led the structured wind-down of entire organizations. These experiences have reinforced her appreciation for the human assets within every organization and the responsibility inherent in developing, empowering, challenging, and, at times, reducing those resources.
Andrej Juriga
Founder and Managing Director, Cultural Bridge | CQ Master Facilitator
Andrej Juriga is the founder and managing director at Cultural Bridge based in Slovakia and Czech Republic, an Associate Facilitator at Cultural Intelligence Center, an EQ (Emotional Intelligence) facilitator certified by Roche Martin, Australia, and a certified Emotions Centered Coach. He has developed strong cross-cultural competencies while living in 5 different countries across Europe and Africa. Mr. Juriga has completed his formal education in intercultural competency at the Intercultural Communication Institute (Portland, Oregon).
He has a background in Sales and in Human Resources at a national and global level. This interesting mix of experience gained in roles of sales manager and Human Resources manager empowers his drive for results, very strong focus on client’s needs and the ability to look at a problem from wider perspective. During his professional career at Dell Technologies and IBM, Mr. Juriga has developed a strong understanding of various national and organizational cultures and their implication on business behaviors.
The combination of experience as a corporate professional and as an entrepreneur, as a sales manager responsible for strategic leadership of a 100+ large organization and as an HR manager supporting over 5,000 internal clients, creates for Mr. Juriga a very strong foundation for training in the areas of: inclusive leadership, talent development, international assignment, building inclusive teams, performance management and DEI strategy development. As a cross-cultural trainer and mentor Mr. Juriga helped individuals and organizations across industries in dozens of countries to improve their capability to work effectively across differences.