Linda Ireland

Linda Ireland is famous for weaving disparate ideas, facts and questions into actionable possibilities that move leaders forward—a “provocateur,” a CEO once called her. In a career crossing eight industries and a dozen functional executive roles, she found a singular purpose: help people envision an ideal future and then reverse engineer the path to achieve it.

Linda was a founder of Aveus, a strategy and change firm now part of integrated health pioneer Medecision. She held progressive executive positions at Wilsons Leather, Digital River, Genesis Direct, PaperDirect, Deluxe Corporation and a sole source supplier to 3M. Chapters in start-ups, turnarounds, acquisitions and emerging growth companies gave Linda a knack for thinking backwards from what could be and asking questions that move people forward.

Actively mentoring boards as well as serving on them, Linda currently is a director on the Braun Intertec Corporation, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, and Social Venture Partners Minnesota boards. She is an angel investor in women owned or led businesses.

Linda holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Minnesota. She holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught in the school’s MBA and Executive MBA programs for 15 years.

The optimist in Linda loves the kind of science fiction that demonstrates “we’ve figured out a few things by then,” which explains the small statue of Princess Leia on her desk. She is a traveler. So, whether in a new city or on a hiking trail, she constantly craves the energy and depth of perspective she feels in cultures new to her.