Jeanne Malnati, Founder & CEO

Jeanne Malnati, Founder & CEO

 Based in Chicago and working with leaders, teams and organizations throughout the United States, Jeanne is the founder and CEO of The Culture Group—The Business of Conversation, where she helps organizations create and maintain positive workplace cultures through building healthy team dynamics. Known as a culture transformation expert with a special emphasis on mental health and wellbeing, Jeanne uses conscious relational leadership principles and communication tools to skillfully frame spaces for the difficult conversations required to build mutual respect and trust in relationships.

A licensed psychotherapist with a master’s degree in Social Work from Loyola University, Chicago, Jeanne has 25 years of professional experience working with a wide range of clientele, including adolescents, families, women in transition and couples, doing therapy and therapy retreat weekends. Jeanne possesses a rich expertise in facilitating group dynamics, also working with corporate teams, non-profits, schools, and the camp industry, assisting leaders and their teams to focus on the health of their relationships by having honest, face-to-face conversations. Possessing the skill set required to lead a team through vital transformations, Jeanne has also earned certification in Change Intelligence, or CQ as well as her Life Coaching Certificate from the California’s Hendrick’s Institute.

Jeanne’s education and experience are vast. Over the last 25+ years, Ms. Malnati has:

  • Created The Clean & Clear Communication System TM where truth is spoken, fun returns, healing takes place, unique strengths are identified and celebrated and good-will permeates.
  • Spoken to thousands of individuals, touching hearts and challenging minds in profound ways, causing great ripple effects in business—including the areas of retail, restaurant, Lean Six Sigma, law, construction, parks and recreation, municipal/government, public relations, and family wealth—as well as in higher education, non-profit and religious institutions.
  • Created and performed groundbreaking work in 20 years of private counseling practice with adolescent girls and their moms, resulting in life-changing family dynamics.
  • Facilitated leadership teams by effectively and compassionately coaching organizations needing assistance to break through relationship and communication barriers.
  • Developed strong teams and reunited partnerships where suppressed emotions, corporate meltdowns, unfinished business, and unhealthy competition are addressed head-on.

Whether it’s to an audience of 10 or 10,000, Jeanne’s ability to instantly connect with people, combined with her passion for sharing heartfelt, experience-driven business stories and life lessons, makes her a much sought-after speaker and presenter. An expert in interpersonal and relationship dynamics, Jeanne inspires and challenges audiences of all kinds. She masterfully guides her listeners, equipping them with simple yet powerful communication tools that can be applied immediately.

Jeanne and her husband of 43 years, Marc, are owners of the oldest family name in Chicago pizza, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. She has helped earn the company Top Workplace Award from the Chicago Tribune for 10 consecutive years, as determined by the employees, as well as the Top 150 National Workplace Award. For 10 years Jeanne facilitated a monthly communication group with top leadership and directors at Malnati’s, teaching conscious leadership principles and experientially engaging in face-to-face tough conversations.

Jeanne is most passionate and happy when she is inspiring, challenging, and empowering people, whether from a stage, sitting in a circle, or having honest face-to-face conversations. She believes transformation happens through strengthening our self-awareness, taking full responsibility for creating the life of our dreams, and addressing old issues that hold us back, head on, with a changed mindset and forward-moving behavior.

Jeanne is also the founder of SpreadingHearts.org, a “good-will” movement she began with her two daughters in 2009 in South Africa.  Spreading Hearts is dedicated to spreading love and appreciation to unsuspecting individuals, through the giving of small pewter hearts. Their mission is to “see” and love people and to unite with “heart spreaders” all around the globe, helping to change the world one heart at a time. To date, over 41 thousand hearts have been shared.

In addition, Jeanne is author of The Top Ten ~ Communication Tools to Transform Your Workplace Culture.  As well as the upcoming book, “The Little Book of Clean and Clear Communication: Fresh and Simple Tools to Transform You and Your Team.”

Jeanne resides in Suburban Chicago and is mother to three adult children and Grammy to five wonderful grandchildren.