Validus LLC

Validus is a young, energetic consulting firm with a very wise old soul.
This team of former corporate executives each has over thirty years of senior
leadership experience in their respective fields, developing winning
organizational strategies. They’ve been on the ground floor helping to
build some highly successful businesses in a wide variety of industries.
They know the difference between a good business idea and a successful
business.

Let’s be honest, whether you’re an entrepreneur or an investor, you need
to be able to answer six basic questions: 1) what is the business concept
and does the market need or want this solution, 2) what is the plan to
bring this service or product to market, 3) is the leadership/team
qualified to execute this plan, 4) how much is it going to cost to launch,
5) what will be my return on investment over what timeframe, 6) and
what is the exit strategy.

As an investor or entrepreneur, the most important asset a startup or
young business has other than funding is its people. That is where Validus
comes in. We have extensive expertise in building dynamic work teams
with the knowledge to help you determine what talent will be needed to
reach your goal and when and how to integrate what skills/knowledge
into your operation. Whether yours is a new business or an existing
business looking to right-size to take advantage of new opportunities, we
are there to guide you through those decisions.
In essence, we help you build a competitive advantage to win!

Our approach is collaborative, customized, and data driven. We will work
closely with you and your team to understand your situation, objectives,
and challenges. We will tailor our solutions to fit your specific needs and
context.

Professional Business Mentoring

"Mentoring: Sharing one's knowledge, skills and experience with another to help them progress."

There are three primary requirements for the long term success of your organization. Our mentoring services make sure you are attending to them and using them to skyrocket performance.

Business/Operational Strategy Consulting

Validus specializes in strategic planning, business analysis, process improvement, change management, and project management. We have a keen eye for identifying both growth opportunities and business challenges, and devising effective strategies to help you address them.
We are experts at communicating with your stakeholders at all levels and building strong relationships. We are focused on helping leaders to identify their true business objectives by:
 Adapting to a change in the competitive landscape
 Combatting stagnant growth
 Creating high performance work teams
Validus will recommend and initiate change that will improve productivity and effectiveness of all our clients’ internal operations by conducing an audit of the current state of operations, and then
recommending methods in which the value chain can be enhanced.

Infrastructure Strategy Consulting

Effective HR starts with asking these critical questions:
 Are your HR strategies aligned with your overall business goals?
 Are your HR needs being supported appropriately?
 Do you have the necessary processes in place to maximize staff
performance, recruitment, and compliance?
Validus will guide you by conducting a Human Resources Audit to ensure that clients do not overlook important compliance and legal issues and that all functions of human resources are addressed. Typical areas of review range from general human resources administration, recruiting, general employment practices, equal opportunities practices, employee communication, performance management, employee relations, policies and procedures, payroll administration, compensation, and benefits administration, among others.

Executive Leadership Coaching

The role of the leadership team in today’s environment is increasingly complex and critical. The team needs to define its purpose and role as a team instead of as a set of individuals. It also needs to align around a clear vision and figure out how to leverage each team member’s
experience and perspective when making good decisions. Most important, the team needs to partner with each of its key stakeholders to learn, look around corners, connect the dots, and chart a path forward to drive positive impact and value creation.
Our executive coaching partners with leadership teams to make this happen. Typical engagements last six months (or longer) and include personal interviews and diagnostic assessments, facilitated workshops, observation during team meetings, and regular check-ins with the team leader and other team members.

Meet Our Team

We bring over 100 years of combined experience to our mentoring relationships.

Partner, Infrastructure Services

Lynne Carter

Lynne Carter is a seasoned Human Resource professional with over 30 years of experience.
After leaving a long, successful career of working for corporations, Lynne started her own recruiting business, Lyncage, which is an independent, specialized executive search talent agency in 2011.
She began her career in the oil and gas industry with Gulf Oil and has served on the executive management team of several major corporations. She joined Wang Laboratories, Inc. and quickly rose to become Director of Human Resources for their Federal Systems Division. There she not only managed the organization’s traditional HR responsibilities, but she also played a significant role in the re-engineering of the company’s business focus from a hardware/software manufacturing company to technology services. Upon completing her tenure at Wang in 1993, Lynne moved on to become Vice President of Human Resources for
Black Entertainment Television (BET).
Her experience at BET afforded her the opportunity to provide HR direction in an extremely
dynamic corporate environment. Their numerous acquisitions and expansions into adjacent
business markets where staffing strategies and revised compensations plans were key to the
expansion success.
After leaving BET, Ms. Carter provided senior human resources consulting services to
numerous firms, including XM Satellite Radio, Burson-Marstellar, National Alliance on Mental
Illness, and Benefits Plus. Her client base includes senior management, individual contributors.
Lynne’s working knowledge of a variety of industries at different stages of their
organizational growth has enabled her to understand the progressive steps of building highly effective work teams. She is skilled at the development of staffing models, guiding organizations in designing both standard and incentivized compensation plans, and establishing comprehensive benefit plans. Her understanding of the importance of communication with work teams has enhanced by experience assisting numerous organizations in drafting policies and procedures manuals and employee handbooks.
The most important asset of any organization, other than your money is its people. Lynne’s expertise in human capital management, with experience with start-ups, is notable.

Partner, Business/Operational Strategies

Jeff Lee

Jefferi K. Lee is a results-driven, senior executive and entrepreneur with over three decades of success in creating and motivating winning teams across several industries, with executive leadership of a $3 billion corporation which was the first African American owned company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. His vision and passion drive his broad corporate experience in profit and loss and operations management and maintains a record of
excellence in supervising diverse people, budgets, and deadlines. Mr. Lee’s management style stresses exceeding expectations. Recently, Mr. Lee Helped develop and launched a new social media app
into the market called RepITSocial, for users to customize their experience based on individuality, community, and culture. He helped raise funds for early-stage development. He also served as President/COO with Bio-Defense Research Group, Inc. a Biotechnology start-up working with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab. There he managed all aspects of start-up company to
design, develop, and market emerging biotechnologies, and helped secure private equity funding.
Mr. Lee served as General Manager of WHUT, a public television station owned by Howard University, in Washington D.C. where he led the station and the university through the FCC’s spectrum auction which raised $21.8B and the stations transition to NEXTGEN TV, a revolutionary new digital broadcast technology based on the same fundamental technology as the internet and digital apps.
In 1982, Lee was hired as the network operations manager for Black Entertainment Television to help grow the channel from a three-hour, one night a week operation to a full 24-hour 7 night a week television network. He was promoted to executive vice president of network operations in 1992, and President of BET Networks in 1995, which
expanded his responsibilities to oversee the development of new BET networks including BET On Jazz: The Cable Jazz Channel, and BET
Gospel, as well as BET Radio.

Partner, Executive Leadership Coaching

Rick Auman

For 30 years, Rick Auman has been an OD consultant, leadership coach and facilitator, working with leaders from the C-suite down to front-line supervisors. With a passion for what it means to be a good leader, Rick understands the impact leaders have on their organizations, both good and bad. He knows that when leaders have clearly articulated values and
vision, behave consistently, and attend to the people side of their businesses, their companies soar.
As a coach, Rick has supported executives at all levels in thinking and acting more strategically, and his awareness of the importance of guiding people through change enabled Rick to make a difference in people’s
lives. He has coached global leaders to deal with issues of diversity, strategy, and leadership for multi-cultural organizations.
Rick has helped design and facilitate a wide range of leadership development activities to help leaders learn to operate more effectively
across a broad spectrum of environments. His focus on helping leaders to take care of themselves first, while learning to constantly adapt to a changing environment creates leaders who can optimize their performance sustainably, while modeling and driving change management for the achievement of individual and organizational goals. This focus

promotes the active engagement of key stakeholders in the change process, reducing the risks and obstacles to effective change.
Since retiring from the US Marine Corps in 1993, his clients have included
IBM, Huntington Ingalls Industries, New York Life, Patron Spirits International, Cigna Health, and Palo Alto Networks.

See if our services fit your need.

Introductory Meeting with Validus LLC
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In Our Client's Own Words

Straight from the Source

Lynne's years of experience proved invaluable in the early days of our growth model. She brought years of expertise in helping to attract and retain top quality talent for the company. Ms. Carter was well versed in all aspect of Human Resources and was key to implementing some very forward thinking policies to help our employees to advantage of flexible working hours, maternity leave and family support.

Terry McPherson

Jeff was constantly challenging us to consider new ways to improve our performance while driving revenue. His keen insights and experience brought new focus and energy to our organization. The time invested in working with Jeff as worth every penny!

Jessie Brown

Rick is a thought leader with a generous and warm style. I have always appreciated his comprehensive approach with great insight for unearthing issues and proposing workable resolutions. In prior consultations, he thoroughly considered both the work processes and key players' emotional investments.

Eric Rock, Owner

Protect Your Investment With Validus

According to business owners, reasons for business failure include money running out,
being in the wrong market, a lack of research, bad partnerships, ineffective marketing,
and insufficient knowledge of the industry.

Validus is an evaluator of your current business capabilities. We help you determine
whether the team that you have built has what it takes to go the distance and be
successful.