Upcoming Events
Ken Polk – The Spirit of Wealth Preservation
january 16, 2025
Click here to register for this event.
Ken Polk is the Founder and CEO of Arlington Family Offices, a leading multi-client family office in the U.S. with over $10B in assets under stewardship. Arlington uses a transformational stewardship ownership model that focuses on creating value beyond money and purpose beyond generations. Prior to founding Arlington at the age of 25, he was at Deloitte and earned his Bachelor’s degree in Accounting and Finance at Lipscomb University. Polk’s goal is to help people build a better family, business, and society.
Bernie Jaworski – The Organic Growth Playbook: Activate High-Yield Behaviors to Achieve Extraordinary Results – Every Time
February 20, 2025
Click here to register for this event.
Bernie Jaworski is the Drucker Chair in Management and the Liberal Arts at the Drucker School, as well as an ISBM and AMA Marketing Fellow. Jaworski was previously at IMD, a highly regarded business school in Switzerland. Prior to IMD, he was a senior partner of the Monitor Group, a global management consulting firm. During his Monitor career, he co-founded and co-led two global practice areas: the e-commerce practice, and the executive education unit. He was also a senior team member of several significant multi-year corporate transformations for multinational clients. Jaworski is one of the most highly cited scholars in the field of marketing and received all major awards from the Journal of Marketing – the Maynard, Alpha Kappa Psi, and Jagdish Sheth Award.
Sara Hamilton & Margaret Vaughan Cox – Build an Enterprise Family to Last: Proven Strategies to Thrive Across Generations
march 18, 2025
Registration link coming soon.
Sara Hamilton has been described as “the Warren Buffet of the family office industry” and was one of the first professionals to see family offices as the most sophisticated part of wealth management. She is the Founder and Board Chair of Family Office Exchange (FOX), an industry-leading–membership organization that brings families, family office executives, and advisors together. Sara also serves on the executive education faculty of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as an adjunct faculty member for their Private Wealth Management and Essentials of Wealth courses. She holds a BA from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from the University of North Florida.
Margaret Vaughan Cox is a top practitioner in family enterprise consulting and holds over 25 years of experience in the field. She is the Founder and President of MCV Consulting, a family enterprise consultancy that helps families and family enterprises succeed and thrive across generations. Previously, Margaret was a principal at Generon Consulting (now Reos Partners and Generon International), where she honed her skills as a strategy consultant and scenario planner. She earned a BA in English Literature and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. In addition, she is a Birkman® certified coach and is certified in the facilitation of scenario planning through the Global Business Network (GBN).
Devin DeCiantis & Ivan Lansberg – The Enduring Enterprise: How Family Businesses Thrive in Turbulent Conditions
Coming Soon
Devin DeCiantis is a Managing Partner at Lansberg Gersick Advisors (LGA), a research and consulting firm that supports family enterprises. He specializes in the financial, organizational, and strategic aspects of family enterprise, focusing on continuity planning, governance design, enterprise risk, and shareholder development. DeCiantis is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Harvard and the Kellogg School of Management. He holds a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard and a Bachelor of Business Administration from York University.
Ivan Lansberg is the Co-Founder and Senior Partner at LGA. He was also one of the founders of the Family Firm Institute (FFI) and the first editor of the Family Business Review, the professional journal of the family business field. Before going into consulting, he was a Professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale. Currently, Lansberg is an Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of Family Enterprise Programs at the Kellogg School. He received his BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia.
Daniel Crosby – The Soul of Wealth: 50 Reflections on Money and Meaning
Coming Soon
Daniel Crosby, Ph.D. is a psychologist and behavioral finance expert who helps organizations learn about market psychology. He is the Chief Behavioral Officer for Orion Advisor Solutions, where he develops tools, training, and technology based on behavioral science for financial advisors. His ideas have been published in the Huffington Post, Risk Management Magazine, WealthManagement.com, and Investment News. In addition, Crosby is the co-author of The New York Times bestseller Personal Benchmark: Integrating Behavioral Finance and Investment Management. His second book, The Laws of Wealth: Psychology and the Secret to Investing Success, was named the best investment book of 2017 by the Axiom Business Book Awards. His third book, The Behavioral Investor, was Axiom’s best investment book of 2019.
Past Events
Authors @ Drucker is an interview series sponsored by The James E. Hughes, Jr. Foundation. Each session features topics relevant to students, alumni, and friends of the Drucker School that are curious about issues surrounding multi-generational family businesses and family wealth. View all sessions of Authors @ Drucker here.
Kim B. Clark is a renowned economist and the NAC Distinguished Professor of Management at the BYU Marriott School of Business. Jonathan R. Clark is an Associate Professor of Management at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Erin E. Clark is the Managing Director in Human Capital Consulting at Deloitte. Leading Through introduces a new leadership paradigm that helps individuals and organizations thrive in today’s context. Click here to watch the recording.
Greg McKeown is a business writer, public speaker, consultant, and researcher specializing in leadership. In the face of burnout and the pressures of high achievement, Essentialism provides a compelling argument for why doing less actually helps us accomplish more. Click here to watch the recording.
Guy Kawasaki is known for his multifaceted contributions to innovation and entrepreneurship as an author, entrepreneur, speaker, and evangelist. A collection of insights, Think Remarkable helps readers create an action plan to personal and professional growth. Click here to watch the recording.
Alex Bean is a Managing Partner of Tandem Ventures, an investment group that leverages operator experience to generate investments in promising startups. Factory for Good: The Pitfalls of Prosperity and How to Avoid Them discusses the challenges that accompany financial success and explains how to circumvent the typical pitfalls of prosperity. Click here to watch the recording.
Sudev Sheth is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Pennsylvania with expertise in South Asia’s social and cultural history. In Bankrolling Empire: Family Fortunes and Political Transformation in Mughal India, he explores how one family business in 17th century India expanded and influenced state power across generations and into present day. Click here to watch the recording.
Bo Burlingham and Paul Spiegelman are Co-Founders of the Small Giants Community, a group of leaders from various industries and locations that aim to foster a purpose- or values-driven leadership approach. They challenge typical definitions of business success by analyzing smaller companies that focus on achieving goals, not growth, as discussed in the book Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big. Click here to watch the recording.
Frank McCourt is an entrepreneur, business leader, and philanthropist. He is the Founder of Project Liberty, an initiative dedicated to creating a better web and world. In Our Biggest Fight, he identifies the ways in which dominant digital platforms harm ourselves and society, then explains how we can reshape technology so that people are prioritized over profits. Click here to watch the recording.
Ellen Langer is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard and is known as the “mother of mindfulness.” For over 40 years, she has studied mindfulness/mindlessness. She has written five books on the topic, with her latest being The Mindful Body: Thinking Our Way to Chronic Health. Click here to watch the recording.
Stephen Goldbart is a licensed clinical psychologist, professor, author, public speaker, and organizational consultant. Stacy Allred is the Managing Director Head of Family Engagement and Governance at J. P. Morgan Wealth. Joan DiFuria is a licensed psychotherapist, as well as a consultant for family businesses, family offices, and families of wealth. In this session, the authors of The 10×10 Learning Roadmap explored how individuals and families can flourish at every stage of their lives. Click here to watch the recording.
Jennifer Wines is the founder of Invisible Wealth Consulting, which helps individuals and institutions usher in the next generation of wealth. Previously, she worked at some of the top private wealth management institutions in the world. In Invisible Wealth, she gives readers the tools and information necessary for reimagining and redefining what wealth means to them. Click here to watch the recording.
Cathy Carroll, a family business leadership coach, knows from personal experience that family business leaders face unique challenges. Hug of War helps family business leaders reconcile two leadership mindsets that seem incompatible: the Business Mindset and the Family Mindset. Click here to watch the recording.
Dennis Jaffe is a Senior Research Fellow at Banyan Global and an advisor to families on issues regarding family business, governance, wealth, and philanthropy. Cross Cultures explores the influence of various global cultural frameworks on family business sustainability. Click here to watch the recording.
Allen Weiss and Debbie MacInnis are professors and leading experts on branding, brand benefits, and positioning. The Brand Benefits Playbook is a strategic guide that explains how focusing on brand benefits can transform organizations and help them succeed in the marketplace. Click here to watch the recording.
Richie Norton is an award-winning author, serial entrepreneur, and international speaker who is recognized as one of the world’s top 100 business coaches. Anti-Time Management delivers an innovative framework for discovering your motivation, concentrating on your priorities, and finding a work-life balance. Click here to watch the recording.
Bridget Hilton and Joe Huff are business partners, co-authors, and keynote speakers who help individuals enrich their lives and careers with fulfilling experiences. Experiential Billionaire is a guidebook to living a fulfilling and regret-free life, as told through research, real stories, and actionable takeaways. Click here to watch the recording.
David York is an estate planning attorney and CPA with over two decades of experience working with a diverse clientele across the wealth spectrum. In his recent book The Gift of Lift, York delves into the notion of stewardship and how we can be a part of something greater than ourselves. Click here to watch the recording.
Katherine Howe is a New York Times bestselling and award-winning historian and novelist. She is the author of several novels for adult and young adult audiences, has edited two volumes of primary sources for Penguin Classics, and is the co-author (with Anderson Cooper) of #1 New York Times bestselling books Vanderbilt and Astor. Click here to watch the recording.
Rob Lachenauer is a seasoned advisor, business leader, and writer specializing in family business leadership and governance. He works with families worldwide, guiding them to realize their full potential and enhance their ownership effectiveness. Click here to watch the recording.
Peter Vogel is a Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship at IMD Business School. An expert on family enterprises, he leads IMD’s work in this field as Director of the IMD Global Family Business Center and Debiopharm Chair of Family Philanthropy. Click here to watch the recording.
Bernie Jaworski is the Drucker Chair in Management and the Liberal Arts, as well as an ISBM and AMA Marketing Fellow. Jaworski comes to the Drucker School from IMD, a highly regarded business school based in Switzerland. Prior to IMB, he was a senior partner of the Monitor Group, a global management consulting firm. Jaworski is also the co-author of four textbooks on e-commerce and teaches about topics that include leadership, corporate strategy, and service management. Click here to watch the recording.
James (Jay) E. Hughes, Jr., Esq., is the author and co-author of numerous books like Family Wealth: Keeping It in the Family, Family – The Compact Among Generations, and The Voice of the Rising Generation. He maintains a variety of roles, such as being a member of the Advisory Board of Arlington Partners, the Chair Emeritus and Chair of the Distribution and Beneficiary Life Enhancement Committee of Lineage Trust Company, and a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute. Click here to watch the recording.
Karen Dillon is the former editor of Harvard Business Review and a prolific writer whose works include The New York Times bestseller How Will You Measure Your Life? (co-authored with Clayton Christensen) and The Microstress Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems – and What to Do about It (co-authored with Rob Cross). She is also the Editorial Director of Banyan Global, a group of Family Business Advisors that brings together deeply integrated and multidisciplinary expertise in family, business, finance, ownership, and philanthropy. Click here to watch the recording.
Seth Godin describes himself as a teacher that does projects. He is a versatile individual who wears many hats – a prolific writer with 20 bestselling books translated into almost 40 languages, an influential online educator and five-time TED Talk speaker, and a distinguished marketing expert recognized in the Guerrilla Marketing Hall of Fame, the Direct Marketer Hall of Fame, and the Marketing Hall of Fame. Listen to Godin talk about his latest book, The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams. Click here to watch the recording.
Whitney Johnson is the CEO of Disruption Advisors, a leadership development company. She was named a 2021 Top #10 Business Thinker by Thinkers50, and is a globally recognized thought-leader, keynote speaker, executive coach, and consultant. A former award-winning Wall Street equity analyst, she understands how companies work, how investors think, and how the best coaches coach. In this session, Johnson helps attendees understand how disruptive innovation can be applied to their unique paths. Click here to watch the recording.
Russ Alan Prince is one of the most published authors on the topic of private wealth. He has completed work on 40 books covering a range of subjects from investor psychology to luxury spending, from understanding the middle-class millionaire to the political philosophies of the super-rich. Robert C. Daugherty served as the Dean of the Forbes School of Business and Technology and is a Professor of Strategy and Finance. Having served on over two dozen corporate boards, he regularly advises private equity firms, institutional investors, and family offices on mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance. They provided guidelines for family members and senior executives, as outlined in their book How to Build a High-Performing Single-Family Office. Click here to watch the recording.
Jamie Weiner, Psy.D is the co-founder of Quest for Legitimacy, a series of intimate conversations with the rising generation of prominent families from around the world. The mission is to support those raised in prominent families to successfully break through their felt isolation and navigate their quest for legitimacy. Weiner shared his findings from his book The Quest for Legitimacy: How Children of Prominent Families Discover Their Unique Place in the World. Click here to watch the recording.
Trudy Cathy White is a native Georgian and the only daughter of Jeannette M. and S. Truett Cathy, the founders of Chick-fil-A, Inc. She began working for the family business when she was 19 years old, becoming the youngest restaurant operator at that time. She currently serves as an ambassador for the family business. In her book A Quiet Strength: The Life and Legacy of Jeannette M. Cathy, White delved into her mother’s untold story. Click here to watch the recording.
Kristin Keffeler, MSM, MAPP is a thought leader, writer, and speaker at the forefront of a global shift in family wealth advising, known as Wealth 3.0. She is the founder and principal for Illumination360 and the Chief Learning Officer for the Johnson Financial Group, a multi-family office and wealth management firm based in Denver. As a consultant, she guides affluent and enterprising families, rising gen, and the professionals who support them in embracing the positive power of wealth and doing the “inner work” of money. Keffeler discussed her most recent book, The Myth of the Silver Spoon: Navigating Family Wealth and Creating an Impactful Life. Click here to watch the recording.
Tom McCullough is the Chairman, CEO, and Co-Founder of Northwood Family Office, an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Western University’s Ivey School of Business. He has spent over 35 years in the wealth management family office field and was awarded Best Individual Contribution to Thought Leadership in the Wealth Management Industry (North America) by the 2020 Family Wealth Report Awards. In this session, he reviewed lessons from his book Wealth of Wisdom: Top Practices for Wealthy Families and their Advisors. Click here to watch the recording.
Chad Ford is an associate professor of International Cultural Studies and Director of the McKay Center for Intercultural Understanding at BYU-Hawaii. His emphasis is on intercultural peacebuilding and mediation. He has led peacebuilding workshops and mediations around the world, including in the Middle East, Africa, Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Australia, New Zealand and the United States. In this session, Ford went through lessons from his book Dangerous Love: Transforming Fear and Conflict at Home, at Work, and in the World. Click here to watch the recording.
Amy Hart Clyne has dedicated her career to helping prosperous families fulfill the promise and potential of their legacies. As Chief Knowledge and Learning Officer at Pitcairn, she empowers wealthy families through education while pioneering research and best practices that elevate the role of advisors to one of true partnership. She shared insights from her book Finding her Voice and Creating a Legacy during this session of the Authors @ Drucker interview series. Click here to watch the recording.
Jim Grubman is a Boston-based family advisor who has worked with individuals, couples, and families of wealth for over 30 years. His work has been featured in print, online, and television media, and speaking engagements in wealth management and family dynamics. In this session, Jim discussed his book Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth across Generations. Click here to watch the recording.
Mircea Raianu is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Maryland and teaches courses on South Asia, the Indian Ocean world, and global capitalism. He delved into the history of the Tata Group – one of the largest family businesses in the world – and shared lessons from his book Tata: The Global Corporation That Built Indian Capitalism. Click here to watch the recording.
Dennis Jaffe, a member of Wise Counsel Research, is a San Francisco-based advisor to families about family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy. During this session, he discussed his book Borrowed From Your Grandchildren: The Evolution of 100-Year Family Enterprises. Click here to watch the recording.
Sponsored by the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation, this seminar series featured six interactive education sessions aimed at teaching business-owning families how to leverage Peter Drucker’s key management principles. The sessions focused on unique challenges in family business such as managing generational transitions, balancing tradition with innovation, and ensuring sustainability.
The inaugural session featured an in-depth presentation of Drucker Principles by Drucker School of Management Professors Vijay Sathe and Bernie Jaworski and an insightful conversation with Bill Betts, the 6th-generation President and COO of Betts Company. Watch the recording here.
The second session featured keynote speakers Cindi Bigelow, CEO of Bigelow Tea Company, and Professor Pramodita (Dita) Sharma, the Schlesinger-Grossman Chair of Family Business at the Grossman School of Business at the University of Vermont, who shared insights on family business continuity as a force for good. Watch the recording here.
Peter Drucker advised future leaders to prepare for entrepreneurship and innovation. What does this look like for family businesses? INSEAD’s Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor in Entrepreneurial Leadership Randel Carlock was the featured speaker for the third session on family entrepreneurship. Carlock led attendees through a hands-on approach to understanding family entrepreneurial behavior and leadership across the founding, professionalizing, and sustaining stages of the family business life cycle. Watch the recording here.
The fourth session focused on a key challenge in family business: managing continuity and change––specifically the process of succession. Simon Cordes (MBA, ’12), fourth generation in a family-owned, mid-size glass manufacturing business in Germany, shared his personal experience of succession within a family business. He was joined by Dennis Jaffe, a leader in family enterprise consulting and clinical psychologist who discuessed the lessons he learned from working with 100-year family enterprises. Watch the recording here.
The fifth session focused on key factors that lead to a prepared and educated rising generation. Peter F. Drucker Chair and Professor of Management Bernard Jaworski set the stage with a presentation on the Drucker principle of managing across multiple time periods. Representatives from Drucker School Global Family Business Institute partners BNY Mellon and Whittier Trust facilitated conversations with family business leaders about their experiences in leading change and passing values down to the next generation. Watch the recording here.
The sixth and final session focused on governance, shared ownership and shared decisions. Professor Katharina Pick, Clinical Associate Professor at the Drucker School, presented on the Drucker principle of managing people. Dave Specht, Director of the Global Family Business Institute, facilitated a conversation with Ben Casper and Teresa Gledhill, siblings from a second generation agriculture operation who shared their experience with navigating the complexities of shared ownership with a family property. We also heard from Robert Duncan, Chairman Emeritus of Duncan Aviation, the largest aviation maintenance company in the world. Robert was an early adopter and implementer of the non-fiduciary advisory board for his family business. Watch the recording here.
Music, Entertainment, and the Family Business
Delve into an insightful conversation about the music industry and family with special guests Jeffery David (Producer/Songwriter for Seal, Echosmith, Zedd, For King and Country, and Mat Kearney) and Linda Sierota (Creative Director and Tour Manager for Echosmith, Vans Warped Tour, Warner Music, and Sony). Jeffery and Linda are also parents of Warner artist Echosmith – creators of chart-topping hits like “Cool Kids,” “Bright,” “Over my Head,” and more. Listen here.
Life Cycle of the Family Office
Family office experts Timothy Lappen, Efi Avigdor, and Ken Kilroy used a life cycle approach to examine the form and function of some of the world’s largest family offices. They discussed the structures that family offices use, concentrating on how family offices can be built, modified, and reinvented to focus on the family’s most precious asset: the family. Click here to watch the recording.
Attracting & Retaining Non-Family Executives to a Family Business
As family businesses grow, they develop a need for non-family talent and leadership. Andreas von Specht explained some of the unique complexities non-family executives face in leading family-owned businesses. He also offered some strategies to attract and retain the best non-family talent to a family business. Click here to watch the recording.
Managing the Family Business Course Information Session
Do you come from a family business? Do you consult with family businesses? Do you want to work for a family business? Do you want to understand how family businesses are different from the rest? If so, then consider enrolling in the Managing the Family Business course taught by Professor Vijay Sathe in the spring. In this information session, Professor Sathe highlighted some of the exciting elements of this course. Get a sneak peek at what you will learn and experience here.
Why Studying Family Business is Important for Management Scholars: The Family Capital Approach
Dr. Gibb Dyer explained the importance of family business in the world’s economy and how strengthening an owning-family’s “family capital” can lead to positive outcomes for both the family and the business. He also discussed how various disciplines in academia (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics) can be used in the study of family businesses. Implications for both family business theory and practice were discussed, along with a brief history of the field of family business and the key issues in the field that have caught the attention of both academics and practitioners.
Legislative Updates & Tips for Year-End Planning
This talk discussed legislative updates and pending issues that will affect family businesses. Pat Soldano, President and Chairman of Family Enterprise USA and Senior Fellow and founding member of the Global Family Business Institute, discussed national education and advocacy in Washington D.C. aimed at promoting family businesses and their economic growth in the U.S. Bob Renken, Executive Vice President of Whittier Trust, discussed end-of-year tax and estate planning tips that business-owning families should be aware of. View the presentation slides here.