Cynthia K. Cuyjet, MA, is the president and managing director of Cuyjet Management Consultants Inc., where she has empowered individual and corporate clients to identify their goals and develop the leadership skills and structure necessary to achieve them for more than 25 years. An expert in talent development, strategic planning and implementing organizational change, Ms. Cuyjet has worked with educational institutions, nonprofits, and Fortune 500 companies across a broad range of industries. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and psychology from Marymount College of Fordham University and earned a Master of Arts in counseling from New Jersey City University in 1974. Her passion for consulting was born after attending a workshop for people of color entering or new to the corporate world. Inspired by the facilitators and the work that they were doing to create ongoing opportunities for mid-career professionals to grow and redefine themselves, she began to look for opportunities to do the same.
Prior to launching Cuyjet Management Consultants in the late 1980s, Ms. Cuyjet found success as a higher education administrator and an executive. She began her career as an admissions counselor for Marymount College of Fordham University and worked as an adult education instructor for Prudential Insurance Company before being named assistant director of admissions at Jersey City State College in 1972. Ms. Cuyjet moved into the corporate world in 1976 as a selection manager for Supermarkets General Corporation and spent four years as manager of management development in the corporate office and four years as division sales manager in the Atlanta Branch of Avon Products Inc.
Building on her experience in higher education and corporate management across product categories, Ms. Cuyjet became a corporate management development manager for Coca-Cola USA in 1984. She continued to build her reputation as a corporate trainer and professional development expert through the 1990s, serving as assistant vice president of employee development and training for Heller International from 1993 until 1996, and moving on to a position as vice president of leadership and professional development at Bank of America in 1999.
Before managing her independent consulting practice, Ms. Cuyjet would become both the associate director of MBA career services for the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and Health Care Service Corporation’s organizational effectiveness lead. Since 2010, she has focused exclusively on her role with Cuyjet Management Consultants. Widely recognized as a thought leader in leadership development, Ms. Cuyjet has been an instructor at Loyola University, Northwestern University and Colorado Technical University, and an adviser to organizations ranging from the Metro Achievement Center for Girls to the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. As a part of her commitment to ongoing growth, she has pursued postgraduate coursework at New York University and holds numerous specialized credentials, including Blessing White/Catalyst master trainer, Mercer-Oliver Wyman world class consulting and Brave Thinking Institute life mastery consulting certifications.
Ms. Cuyjet credits her success to the influence of her professional mentors, especially former board leader JoAnn Lilek of the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago and Council of Concerned Black Executives founder Al Wakefield. In recognition of her consistent achievement and dedication to excellence, she has been honored with a Women in Industry Award from the National Council of Negro Women, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education Management Training Center Award, and was named Executive Woman of the Year in Human Resources by the National Association of Professional Women in both 2009 and 2010.