Our Team - CQ Associates, Culture Quotient | Culture and Leadership Consulting

CQ’s Story

“And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”

– Paulo Coelho

These are the words that inspired the genesis of CQ Associates.

CQ Associates emerged from a shared desire to draw on professional experience, leadership skills, and knowledge with a commitment to driving positive change in the world. After spending decades in Corporate America, in addition to other diverse life experiences, we were in search of something more. That something turned out to be CQ Associates.

The prism of our leadership experience affirmed the positive correlation between culture and performance. Understanding that a positive and conscientious culture drives a competitive and successful organization was core to our experience, not to mention empirically validated in research literature.

We began to think about an effective and meaningful way to “measure” organizational culture. We named this measurement Culture Quotient, or CQ, and developed a proprietary process to measure the CQ of an organization. Embedded in the process is a concept that we call cultural alchemy—an approach that combines art, science and a belief that transformation is possible.

CQ Associates exists to help organizations illuminate their culture and unlock their greatest future possibility. For their people. For their performance. We are ambitious, passionate, and deeply committed to this work. We look forward to the conversation.

~Carrie and Cory

Our Team

Cory Carlesimo, Co-Founder

Cory has spent decades in senior leadership roles on Wall Street, building new disruptive businesses and reimagining best-in-class franchises. A lifelong change agent, he learned firsthand that culture is the single greatest determinant of whether an organization reaches its potential. That conviction became CQ. He works directly with C-suite leaders as a trusted advisor, helping them understand their culture clearly and cultivate the conditions for real, lasting change. He brings to every engagement what no methodology can replicate: the perspective of someone who has sat in the chair.

B.A. Philosophy, Fordham University. Currently CEO, Prospect HQ.

Cory Carlesimo, Co-Founder

Cory spent 24 years in senior leadership roles on Wall Street, building businesses, managing complex teams, and learning firsthand that culture is the single greatest determinant of whether an organization reaches its potential. That conviction became CQ. He works directly with C-suite leaders as a trusted advisor, helping them understand their culture clearly and build the conditions for real, lasting change. He brings to every engagement what no methodology can replicate: the perspective of someone who has sat in the chair.

B.A. Philosophy, Fordham University. Currently CEO, Prospect HQ.

Carrie Shumway, Co-Founder

Carrie brings to CQ a rare combination: attentive listening skills honed as a certified mindfulness teacher and council facilitator, a deep foundation in psychology that spans from her undergraduate to her graduate work, and the competitive drive she developed as a Division I collegiate athlete. She has spent her career at the intersection of performance and human connection, in financial services, in community leadership, and now in culture and leadership consulting. At CQ, she is the architect of CQ’s culture framework and leads the synthesis work that turns data into a story organizations can act on.

M.A. Psychology, Columbia University. B.A. Psychology, Harvard University, cum laude.