Afleveringen
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Today, I am delighted to welcome Christopher Hill, founder of luxury philanthropic travel brands Hands Up Holidays and Impact Destinations. Christopher was working in finance in London when in 2002, he took a trip to South Africa which changed his life. He founded Hands Up Holidays in 2006 and in 2018 launched Impact Destinations, in response to demand from clients seeking transformational experiences, using their philanthropic donations to make an impact. Christopher serves his majority US-based clients from New Zealand where he lives with his family.
Christopher provides his definition of impact travel and describes the concept and purpose of luxury philanthropic vacations and experiences. He explains why families are engaging in philanthropic travel, what they are looking to activate, and why they are responding with such enthusiasm to the opportunity to enjoy worldwide destinations while also doing good and making a positive impact.
For families interested in impact tourism, Christopher outlines the different options and projects to choose from and explains how they decide which projects to pursue and how best to align these choices with their family objectives.
Christopher elaborates on whether families tend to engage in impact travel as a one-off adventure or it becomes an ongoing approach to how they vacation together. He also talks about how families cultivate a lasting engagement with and interest in philanthropic tourism among their family members, especially different generations with different preferences and styles of travel.
Enjoy this informative dialogue with a leading innovator and practitioner in the philanthropic travel industry.
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Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Ty Allen, founder of LastingMind, an AI-powered platform that helps families preserve a loved one's voice, stories, memories, and wisdom through interactive conversation. A rising-gen member of an enterprise family himself, Ty initially built LastingMind to solve a need for his own family. LastingMind allows future generations to continue learning from and engaging with the people who matter most – creating a deeply personal digital legacy that families can return to forever.
Before founding LastingMind, Ty built AI-powered chatbot and conversational applications for startups and Fortune 500 companies, with a focus on creating natural, human-centered AI experiences. Ty earned both his undergraduate and master's degrees from MIT, where he specialized in Artificial Intelligence.
Ty is a tech entrepreneur and a G2 member of an enterprise family, and he shares his views on the importance of family knowledge and shared intellectual capital, highlighting why it is important to preserve the voice and wisdom of past generations.
Ty first set out to build LastingMind as a tool to preserve his own father's knowledge and wisdom. There are many applications and services that help families accomplish this goal, but Ty shares what he believes was missing in the marketplace for him and his family and catalogs the different unmet needs he aimed to address and what incremental value he built LantingMind to provide.
Ty offers an overview of how family can go about, from a practical standpoint, inventorying and capturing their collective knowledge and their shared intellectual capital.
Collecting and encapsulating the knowledge and voice of living or deceased family members is not always comfortable. Ty talks about how a family can create engagement with a shared knowledge collection project and how do they can overcome the inhibitions or discomfort that many family members may feel.
Don't miss this fascinating conversation with an enterprising G2 family leader who developed an AI-powered solution for his family and is now making it available to other families to help them capture and memorialize their family's intellectual capital.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Today, I am excited to speak with Stephan Roche, a Partner at BanyanGlobal, a family enterprise advisory firm. Stephan joined the firm after more than a decade as a family office and investment executive. Most recently, he was CEO of Walton Enterprises, the family office for the Walton family. He also served as COO for Cascade Asset Management, the private investment office for Bill Gates and the Gates Foundation.
An inaugural member of the UChicago Booth School's Family Office Initiative advisory board, Stephan also serves on the boards of Silver Ventures, a family-owned enterprise based in San Antonio, TX, and Guidant Financial Group, a closely held small business financial services firm based in Boise, Idaho. Stephan's expertise is in family enterprise governance, family office strategy, and family wealth stewardship.
Stephan worked with some of the most successful and influential families in the world and has had the opportunity to analyze the ingredients of their enduring success. He shares his experience on what it takes to create a durable family enterprise.
Stephan points out that durable family enterprises need to strike the right balance between their focus on financial capital vs. human capital. He talks about the importance of this balance, and especially the significance of human capital for the long-term success of family offices and enterprises.
An important dimension for families in their quest for a durable enterprise is their philosophical and practical stance towards technology. Stephan explains how technology plays into the professionalization and sustainability of the family enterprise and family office and how families can best align their adoption of frontier technologies, such as AI, with their shared values and purpose.
Another important practical dimension that each family enterprise must deal with almost constantly is leadership succession. Stephan provides important leadership succession tips and lessons he would offer families who are striving to build a durable family enterprise.
Do not miss this deeply informative conversation with one of the veteran operators, leading advisors, and prominent thought leaders in the enterprise family wealth and family office space.
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Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Pete Walther, President and CEO of Marsh McLennan Agency Private Client Services, a Marsh business dedicated to serving the unique needs of family offices. Pete also leads the strategy for Marsh Global Family Office Solutions, which extends beyond traditional insurance solutions to include investment solutions, wealth and tax optimization solutions, executive liability and extortion solutions, and risk advisory services, all aimed at addressing the most pressing matters of family offices.
Beginning his career in banking, Pete spent seven years structuring and managing a senior debt portfolio of highly leveraged commercial clients. He joined Marsh in 1995 to help launch its Private Equity and Mergers & Acquisitions (PEMA) practice. Over the subsequent 15 years, he has led several businesses within the firm, including PEMA North America, Global Alternative Risk Solutions, Marsh Midwest Zone, and PEMA Asia-Pacific based out of Australia.
Pete, and his firm Marsh, are valued long-term members of the FOX Industry Leaders Council and we are very proud to have their expertise as part of the FOX membership community.
Nowadays, families – even those at the top of the wealth pyramid – are facing significant disruptions with the insurability of many of their assets. Pete describes the challenges families and their family offices are experiencing with insurability and what difficulties that creates for them.
Pete outlines the main factors driving these insurability challenges and shares his overview of the major trends that are driving these disruptions.
One important practical consideration Pete emphasizes to families is to develop and maintain a "prevention vs. recovery mindset". He explains what that means and postulates the key principles of a strong and healthy prevention mindset.
Another important practical tip Pete has for families and family offices is to invest in grassroots literacy, education, and design thinking. He elaborates on that and shares what other opportunities and trends are giving him personally hope for the future resilience of families and their family offices.
Do not miss this highly instructive conversation with one of the top thought leaders and practitioners in the risk management and insurance industry serving top UHNW families, their enterprises, and their family offices.
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Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Sarah Thorpe Scott, an executive coach and advisor working at the intersection of leadership, capital, and family enterprise systems. She supports executives, investors, and multigenerational families navigating the moments that matter, including succession, wealth transfer, leadership transitions, governance decisions, and spouses marrying into family systems. Her work focuses on the emotional and relational dynamics that often sit beneath these moments, helping families prepare the next generation for leadership and stewardship while strengthening the dialogue and trust required for long-term success across generations.
Sarah is the Founder of Thorpe Scott Coaching & Advisory, Coach-in-Residence at Bedrock, a global multi-family office with offices in Geneva, London, and Monaco, and a Special Advisor to Horizons, a member network of millennial next-generation leaders and investors. Sarah began her career in investment banking at Credit Suisse in New York and later worked across leading media organizations including CNBC and Forbes. She went on to hold senior leadership roles at The New York Times, where she became Managing Director, EMEA, leading global teams and executing dozens of complex, multi-million-dollar partnerships with multinational organizations across virtually every major industry.
Married into a fifth-generation family enterprise herself, Sarah brings both professional rigor and lived experience to her work with family offices, next-generation leaders, and the executives and advisors who work alongside them. She has served as Chair of the Young Vic Development Board and the Duke UK Alumni Board.
We delve into the topic of spousal integration into UHNW families and the experiences of spouses within the broader family enterprise. We start by having Sarah sharing her observations on how family structures see and treat spouses today, and how enterprise family systems are organized to receive and engage spouses and in-laws.
Sarah describes how spousal integration works presently, outlining the typical experience of a spouse joining a multigenerational family of wealth. She highlights some of the common challenges faced by spouses entering these sometimes-complex family systems.
One common, and often controversial, practical tool that is part of the spousal integration process is the prenuptial agreement. Sarah shares her thoughts and lived experiences on how well prenups work and offers her views on where there may be room to improve and enhance the experience of the soon-to-be-married couple going through the process.
Finally, Sarah lays out her vision and roadmap for a better spousal integration process, including the elements, the approach, and the spirit that can provide a more positive, engaging, and pleasant experience for spouses and the entire family.
Enjoy this illuminating conversation with a highly regarded family member-turned-practitioner providing thought leadership in the spousal integration topic that impacts every enterprising family.
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Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Deborah Goldstein, founder of Enlightened Philanthropy, and advisory firm dedicated to guiding philanthropists across their giving journeys. Drawing from more than 25 years of experience in the nonprofit field, Deborah helps clients align their values with their giving so they can give with clarity and confidence. She is the creator of Philanthropy Camp for Women, an opportunity for women to explore their giving and learn in community.
Deborah has worked for Oregon State University, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. She is a 21/64-certified consultant and co-Dean of Philanthropy for the Purposeful Planning Institute.
Philanthropy is an important and powerful force in the world in general, but it is also a fundamental pillar of how successful families deploy their hard-earned capital. Deborah offers her view on philanthropy for families, explaining why it is important, what purpose it serves, and how to best unleash its full potential and impact.
Going deeper into the different archetypes of family principals and family members who are engaged in or inspired by philanthropy, Deborah delves into the topic of philanthropy for women and talks about the unique aspects of how women approach and engage with philanthropic giving.
Deborah has created Philanthropy Camp for Women and she describes for our audience the concept, the thesis, and how the camp experience works and creates value for the female principals who attend it.
Deborah has developed and frequently utilizes various practical tools to help philanthropists understand and overcome the challenges that may stand in the way of their charitable giving. She highlights some of the diagnostic tools and frameworks that she uses to help philanthropic families get unstuck, align around a shared vision, and successfully achieve their philanthropic strategies.
Enjoy this informative conversation with a leading philanthropic advisor serving top UHNW families and their family offices.
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Today, it is my pleasure to speak with John Claisse, CEO of Albourne Group, an independently owned, non-discretionary and global investment consultant, providing advice on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, real assets, real estate, and dynamic beta. Founded in 1994, Albourne has over 350 clients with over $750bn invested directly in alternative investments.
John is an equity partner and member of Albourne's Executive Committee and chairs the firm's Corporate Planning Council, which comprises Albourne's function and region heads. He helped develop the firm's proprietary risk analytics, was formerly the Senior Analyst for quantitative equity strategies and multi-strategy hedge funds and later headed up the firm's portfolio group.
John remains a Portfolio Analyst working with several public and corporate plans, large endowments, and foundations. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Sussex Business School, on the Board of Trustees of Standards Board for Alternative Investments (SBAI), and on the Governing Board of The Robert Toigo Foundation. John, and his firm Albourne, are valued Advisor members of FOX, and we are privileged to have their knowledge and expertise in our membership community.
In today's world of major technological, geopolitical, and regulatory disruptions, family offices and their investment teams are facing a crisis of trust. John describes the current context and the challenges family offices experience pertaining to trust in investing. He shares an overview of the various conflicts of interest that exist in today's investing landscape that family offices need to be aware of and prepared to manage.
John outlines the different trust-affirming models and practices that family offices can adopt and lean on to find and build trust in today's investing marketplace. There is an emerging ecosystem aimed at promoting greater trust in investing. John talks about the groups and players in the investing landscape who play a role in strengthening investors' trust and confidence in both public and private market mechanisms.
Don't miss this illuminating conversation with one of the leading providers of investment advice, research, and mid- and back-office implementations to family offices, as well as public and private institutions.
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Today, I'm excited to speak with Valerie Galinskaya, Managing Director and Head of the Merrill Center for Family Wealth®. She works with ultra-high net worth families to help empower them to be purposeful about the impact of their wealth on themselves, their families, and their communities. Her insights have been featured in leading publications and outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Barron's, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance and CNBC.
Valerie rejoined Merrill in 2014 after serving as Project Leader at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in New York. She was a 2025 ThinkAdvisor Luminaries Thought Leader of the Year, a 2025 InvestmentNews Women to Watch Financial Literacy Champion Finalist, a Crain's New York Business 40 Under 40 Honoree and a 2024 WealthBriefing Outstanding Contribution to Wealth for Good Initiatives Winner. She is a member of the Forbes Finance Council, Purposeful Planning Institute, Family Firm Institute and Collaboration for Family Flourishing. Valerie enjoys volunteering to encourage education and financial literacy, supporting the efforts of Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning (PENCIL) and serving as former Associate Board Member of City Year New York.
Valerie works with many families, and especially with the younger rising-gen members of these families. She tells us about some of the top goals and anxieties she encounters among families and their rising future generations. She then, delves into some of the external themes and trends that, in her experience, are impacting families most today.
Throughout Valerie's years of work with enterprising multigenerational families, she has witnessed many who have struggled and many who have flourished. She outlines the most common and impactful areas of best practices that she has identified among the most successful families she has worked with.
Valerie wraps up by offering her practical advice and tips for family members looking to navigate their collective enterprise journey. She also provides valuable suggestions and tips for family office executives and external advisors serving families.
Do not miss this engaging conversation with a leading practitioner and thought leader in the family wealth advisory space.
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Today, I am delighted to speak with Will Bledsoe, founder of Restorative Way, a company that provides training and program implementation for schools, individuals, organizations and businesses to recognize trauma, resolve conflict and engage with challenging behavior. In addition to his private consultation practice, Will is currently a professor of communication in the Isaacson School for Communication, Arts, and Media at Colorado Mountain College.
Will holds a doctorate in communication from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a master's degree in religious studies, also from CU. While at the university he taught courses in conflict management, group communication, global peace & conflict studies, community justice, social justice, the rhetoric of campaigns and social movements. In the religious studies department, he taught a course in Native American religious traditions.
In 1999 Will was he was awarded Outstanding Scholarship Recognition by the National Honor Society of Religious Studies/Theology. He has facilitated over 1000 mediation encounters using a range of restorative models including victim/offender dialogue, family-group conferences, community-group conferences, and peacemaking circles for various municipal and district courts, schools, families, family businesses, and workplaces. Will is the author of The Restorative Way: Harnessing the Power of Restorative Communication to Mend Relationships, Heal Trauma, and Reclaim Civility One Conversation at a Time (2024).
Will specializes in the field of restorative communication, especially restorative conflict resolution. He provides a definition for our listeners of restorative conflict resolution and describes the purpose and the practice of restorative communication.
Relationship challenges and interpersonal conflict are common in most families. Will tells us how restorative conflict resolution can help families manage and resolve conflicts and describes his work with families who struggle with conflict and fractured relationships.
Next, we look at the practical applications of Will's expertise. He describes the method of restorative conflict resolution, detailing the tools, frameworks, and approaches inherent in the practice of restorative conflict resolution.
Communication is a critical component of restorative conflict resolution. Will talks about the importance of communication skills and offer some of your tips for developing and applying restorative communication among family members.
Enjoy this instructive conversation with one of the leading practitioners of restorative conflict resolution in support of UHNW families.
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Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Alex Hayward, Executive Fellow, Family Offices and Private Capital at London Business School. Alex is a seasoned expert in Family Offices, with extensive experience building, reviewing, and optimizing Family Offices across the UK, Europe, the US, Dubai, and Australia. Over the past 15 years, he has analyzed more than 100 Single Family Offices, evaluating their structures, operations, and investment strategies.
Alex draws on this broad experience to lead London Business School's work on value creation within Family Offices, examining how leading Family Offices develop their strategy, operations, and culture to support long-term growth. Alex also serves as an independent director to a Family Office in London, supporting a third-generation multi-billion family. Alongside this role he chairs the Family Office Community at Said Business School, University of Oxford, Ownership Project 2.0.
Alex is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX and a valued alumnus of the FOX team.
Alex has done significant research into the importance of organizational culture among investment management, and its significance in explaining and driving performance of investment teams. He tells us what his research shows and highlights what both clients and members of investment teams can learn from it.
We then focus more narrowly and look at the role of culture within family offices. Alex shares his views on how culture contributes to the value creation at the family office and the ability of family office teams to drive meaningful outcomes for their principals.
Impact is frequently among the top objectives that family members seek to pursue individually or collectively with the support of their family office. Alex talks about his work and research on the effect of family office culture on the family's impact strategy, and the ability of family members to find and follow their individual pathways for self-realization and impact.
Alex has also studied the effect of grief on the ability of families to make decisions and achieve growth. He shares his findings on how grief and other emotions impact UHNW family strategies and their collective activities within the family enterprise, including investing, philanthropy, social impact, etc.
Enjoy this insightful conversation with one of the foremost academics and practitioners in the family wealth and family office space.
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Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Dan Spector, partner at Hanson Bridgett, an Am Law 200 California-based law firm and the first law firm recognized as a certified B Corp. Dan is a trial lawyer, mediator, and arbitrator whose practice focuses on trust, probate and complex civil cases involving families. He has been named in multiple years as a Super Lawyer by his peers for Northern California in the area of Trust and Estate Litigation and a statewide mediation and private neutral panelist for Judicate West, a professional neutral company with offices throughout California.
Dan is a member of the California Lawyer's Association's (CLA) Trust and Estates Section and Litigation Section, as well as the Sacramento County Bar Association's Probate, Trust and Estate Planning Section. He has recently been selected to serve on the Executive Committee for CLA's Trust and Estate Section (TEXCOM), for which he participates in various subcommittees, including the Litigation, Incapacity and Legislation subcommittees. He also serves as a Judge Pro-Tem in the Sacramento Superior Court and has been named as an expert witness on issues relating to trust, probate, and litigation matters.
Dan has lectured at U.C. Davis before the Sacramento County Bar Association, CCLSA and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants on the topics of civil litigation and trust and probate litigation. He has served on numerous non-profit boards throughout Sacramento, including as Chair of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento, board member of the San Juan Unified School District Superintendent's Advisory Board, board member of the St. Ignatius School Advisory Board, board member of the Anthony M. Kennedy Learning Center, and Chairman of the Board of Del Paso Country Club.
Dan served as General Chairman of the 2015 United States Senior Open Golf Championship, the single largest sporting event in Sacramento's history. Dan and his firm Hanson Bridgett are values advisor members of FOX, and we are thrilled to have their expertise within our membership community.
We've talked about conflict on this podcast before, but today we'll learn more about Dan's area of expertise – "active conflict". Dan explains for our listeners how active conflict is defined and how it is manifested in both pre-litigation and litigation situations.
Families are complex, and family dynamics and the emotional undercurrents that run through the relationships among family members present a unique challenge for both clients and professionals in our field. Dan shares his experience on how families get to the active conflict stage, and he describes the common pathways and the ways family members and their family offices can recognize them.
In many cases, significant changes – and resulting conflicts – within a family are triggered by the death of a key family principal. So, one practical consideration is to distinguish between pre-mortem and post-mortem conflict situations. Dan talks about the main differences between family conflicts that take place before vs. after a major death in the family.
Active conflict can be very painful for families. Dan provides an outline of the options available to families for managing and resolving active conflict, including the different professional channels and techniques they can resort to.
Don't miss this illuminating conversation with a leading expert and practitioner in the field of family conflict management and resolution.
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Today, I'm excited to speak with Max Youngquist, family office structuring and governance leader at RSM, a leading global assurance, tax, and consulting firm.
Max focuses on offering holistic services and solutions for family offices, covering complex tax compliance, structuring, and planning, as well as estate and gift, wealth transfer, and succession planning. He has consulted with individual family members about their many personal financial matters and concierge needs and supported their personal businesses and hobbies.
Prior to RSM, Max held various senior positions at Henry Crown & Company and Ernst & Young. Max and his firm RSM are valued advisor members of FOX, and we are fortunate to have their expertise as part of our membership community.
We start by discussing the very common model where most family offices start – the embedded single-family office (SFO). Max offers his definition of an embedded SFO and describes its common characteristics. He goes over the top reasons to transition away from an embedded SFO, and offers his insights on when, why, and how families should consider unembedding their family office.
Max delves in detail into what is absolutely needed at a minimum for a family to be able to make a successful transition from an embedded SFO and covers the "core" functional elements of an unembedded SFO.
Max provides invaluable tips on how to best design and administer the family office functions to ensure a smooth launch of the unembedded SFO and talks about some best practices to emulate and common mistakes to avoid.
Enjoy this highly instructive dialog with one of the prominent practitioners and thought leaders in the niche realm of family office design and operations.
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Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with John A. Warnick. John A. is a celebrated leader and founder in the family wealth professional space, and an inspiration to many of us in our niche field. He has practiced as a tax attorney for over 45 years and has published articles in law reviews, Trust and Estates magazine and the Journal of Practical Estate Planning. He worked as a legislative assistant on Capitol Hill in the 1970s and was a legal intern in the office of the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1973.
In 2010 John A. founded the Purposeful Planning Institute which today is the largest multi-disciplinary educational institute (non-profit) focused on best practices for UHNW and HNW families with over 525 members in the U.S. and nine countries internationally. He was also a co-founder of the Collaboration for Family Flourishing (CFF) and served for four years on the Board of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy. He was nominated as a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel in 1994 and has chaired two subcommittees within ACTEC, the Legacy and Generational Planning Subcommittee of the Practice Committee and the Family Dynamics Subcommittee of the Business Planning Committee.
In 2017, John A. received the Scott Fithian Leadership Award from the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy and served on the Board of Directors of that organization for four years. He has served on the Planned Giving Advisory Council of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia since 2015. John A. is the author of two Tax Management portfolios and more recently has self-published The Purposeful Trusts and Legacies Handbook and is currently working on two book projects, The Gift of You, and the New Vocabulary of Family Wealth.
John A. is a good and long-time friend of FOX and we are privileged to have collaborated with him and with PPI repeatedly throughout the years.
Purpose is often cited as one of the key pillars of long-term success for multigenerational families. John A. dedicated much of his professional work on bringing purpose to families and the advisors who serve them – particularly as the founder of the Purposeful Planning Institute. He elaborates on the importance of purpose for families and their advisors and talks about why it is important to be purposeful as a family leader or wealth advisor. He also highlights the distinctions between purpose, values, and mission since these are often lumped together and not always fully understood.
John A. has pointed to the significance of family traditions and rituals as powerful tools for establishing and living the family purpose. He describes why rituals are important and how they help families crystallize their purpose and values and pass them on across generations. Conversely, he points out what happens if traditions become performative or imposed on the family, rather than genuinely meaningful.
John A. shares some examples of family traditions that he has encountered over his decades of work with UHNW families and outlines the impact of these traditions on the family and the changed that resulted from these shared rites.
John A. has formulated five suggestions for trustees, including corporate and professional trustees, as well as PTCs, related to helping the families they serve define and fulfill their shared purpose. He provides an overview of these practical resources and describe how they can be put to use in support of the family's success and wellbeing.
Do not miss this opportunity to hear from one of the most respected founders and premier thought leaders of the family wealth space.
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Today, it is my pleasure and honor to speak with Mark Daniell, Chairman of The Raffles Family Wealth Trust Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based strategic advisory boutique working with a select set of UHNW families and their businesses around the world, addressing issues related to strategy, strategic transactions, governance, leadership, generational transitions and Integrated Legacy Strategy.
In addition, Mark is the founder, along with a team of distinguished global partners, of www.raffleslegacylearning.com, an advanced e-learning platform for legacy families and their advisors. He has 20 years of experience as a partner at Bain & Co, and was also Director of merchant bank Wasserstein Perella, and President of a publicly listed investment firm in Singapore, and he serves on the boards of a number of public and private companies including Olam International and ED&F man, in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
Mark is the author of seven books (so far) in areas related to family wealth and business strategy. In 2010, he co-wrote "Family Legacy and Leadership: Preserving True Family Wealth in Challenging Times" with FOX founder Sara Hamilton, and he has written articles for The Wall Street Journal and appeared on the BBC, CNN, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia. Mark is a long-time friend and collaborator of FOX.
Mark's advisory work over the past 35 years has been focused on business strategy, which is probably the #1 subject talked about, taught, and worked on in the corporate world. But what does strategy mean in the family office and family wealth realm? Mark talks about how family leaders and family office executives should think about, develop, and execute the strategy for their family, enterprise, or office?
Another foundational corporate concept that Mark has deep experience and expertise in is culture. Mark shares his insights on how culture manifests itself at a family office or family enterprise and offers some pointers on what family office leaders need to do to foster a strong, vibrant culture that attracts and retains top talent.
Mark has developed the "10 Circles Framework" to serve as a strategic guide for families of wealth and family enterprises. He describes the framework and explains how family leaders and family office executives can utilize it in their work with the families they serve.
Another area of practical importance Mark points out is the imperative – and challenge – for families and their enterprises and offices to stay innovative and competitive. He offers his views on how families and family offices can nurture their creativity in each of the 10 circles of his 10 Circles Framework.
Don't miss this deeply insightful conversation with one of the bets known strategists, thinkers, and global practitioners serving UHNW families and their complex enterprises.
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Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Annette Hopper and Levi Hammett, co-founders of Full Scope Solutions, a strategic outsourcing firm serving family offices. Annette brings more than 25 years of experience in the investment advisory industry. From 2004 through January 2025, she held key leadership roles at a Boulder- and New York-based asset allocator, serving as Partner, CFO, CCO, and COO. In these positions, she oversaw financial strategy, compliance, and operational execution for both institutional and family clients. Prior to that, she co-founded a consulting firm that served over 60 clients across multiple industries and provided outsourced CCO services for a Boulder-based asset allocator.
Levi has over 12 years of investment operations and analytics experience with an Asset Allocator operating out of both Boulder and New York City. Throughout his career, he has successfully implemented performance reporting systems, risk management platforms, data warehouses, trading workflows, and custodial relationships. His extensive expertise in investment operations, systems integration, and investment reporting has made him an expert in enhancing business processes and supporting data-driven strategies within the financial industry.
Annette and Levi, and their firm Full Scope Solutions, are valued Advisor members of FOX, and we are privileged to have their knowledge and expertise in our membership community.
There is much talk within our space about the formalization and professionalization of family office functions, but not much uniformity or consistency in defining what these functions are. Annette and Levi give us their overview of the core family office functions and their working definitions of back-office, middle-office, and front-office departments that are commonly seen among family offices.
A big part of professionalizing various family office functions is the decision whether to outsource any of them – and certainly, many families are making the decision to hand off key components of their family office operations to specialized external providers. Annette and Levi talk about what it takes to architect an outsourcing relationship that both brings in world-class expertise and capabilities and provides the family with the control, quality and customization of services they often require.
Annette and Levi offer their practical tips and advice for family principals and leaders on how best to understand the middle-office and back-office functions that serve their family – and why it is important to do that in the first place.
Going back to the concept of architecting the family office for the long term, Annette and Levi provide some suggestions to families and their family office executives on how to build a resilient infrastructure for their family office – how do they decide what to own vs. rent, build vs. outsource.
Enjoy this informative dialog with two highly experienced operators and service providers in the UHNW wealth management and family office space.
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Today, I'm especially honored to welcome Ted Rich, Chief Growth Officer for Rich Products, a family-owned food company with annual sales of over $6B and a market-leader in a number of food categories, including cakes, icings, pizza, appetizers, and specialty toppings. In this position, Ted leads companywide demand-creation strategies to accelerate growth and expansion in priority markets and segments across the globe. He is also a member of Rich's Executive Team and Board of Directors where he serves on the Finance and Audit Committee.
In 2020, Ted established the Rich Family Council for the family-owned business where he serves as the council head. Since joining Rich's in 1995, Ted has held various associate and customer-facing roles, including Executive Vice President of Organizational Excellence, Senior Vice President of Customer Experience and Europe/Middle East region leader, Regional Sales Manager of Foodservice; Strategic Sourcing Leader of Procurement; and Vice President of Toppings and Icings in North America, to name just a few.
Before joining Rich's, Ted worked for the Seattle Supersonics NBA team as a sales manager and also held positions with North West Parent Publishing in Seattle and Travers-Schutte & Company Advertising in Buffalo, NY. He currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Education Policy Committee on the Culinary Institute of America's Board of Directors and supports the Institute's mission to provide the world's best professional culinary education. Ted and his family are family office members of FOX, and we are thrilled to have them as valued members of our FOX community.
We start with the amazing journey of the Rich family and the iconic company Ted's family has now owned and operated for 80 years. Ted shares the story and path of the family business and the broader family enterprise over the past 8 decades.
Governance is an evergreen topic among family enterprises and family offices, and certainly a frequent topic for families and advisors within the FOX community. Ted talks about his family's governance evolution, highlighting when formal governance became a necessity and how the family went about establishing these structures, both for the business and for the broader family enterprise.
One practical tool Ted recommends to fellow families and their multigenerational enterprises is planning forward. He describes the multi-year planning process and discipline his family has employed throughout their shared journey and outlines some of the specific steps, methods, and tools they have relied on to always have a long-term, forward-looking view of where the family enterprise is going.
The Rich family leadership has embraced the principle of inclusivity. Ted talks about how they have operationalized this belief in inclusivity and describes the various processes and structures that have been instrumental to bringing more family members into the journey and ensuring strong engagement with the rising generations.
Do not miss this exclusive and highly educational conversation with a distinguished family principal and leader of one of the most storied and successful family enterprises in America.
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Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Maura Harris, Founder of Maura Harris & Company, an operational due diligence (ODD) consulting boutique. With over 25 years of experience in alternative asset management, Maura has worked for premier asset managers, fund of funds, RIAs, and family offices. Her core services include Operational Due Diligence (ODD) Readiness, ODD Document Review, ODD Full Reviews, ODD Audit and ODD Verification, as well as add-on specialty due diligence.
Prior to working with private clients, Maura was the Head of Due Diligence at Bostwick Capital, a fund of funds, from 2016 to 2024. In addition, she provided consulting and advisory services for a broad range of firms including AITEC, a technology peer group, Centrl Inc., a fintech company digitizing investor questionnaires, Symphonic Leadership Partners, a change management advisory group, and Harness All Possibilities, a nonprofit helping individuals transform their value to meet the future of work. From 2006 to 2015, Maura developed and managed the operational due diligence program at The Permal Group. Permal was a global multi-strategy, multi-manager investing in hedge funds, private equity, and real assets. Prior to Permal, she worked in accounting, operations and due diligence at GAM Investments and Bank of America Alternative Group, as well as the private equity group at Prudential Financial.
In this episode, we discus Maura's core area of expertise – operational risk and due diligence (ODD) for family offices. She explains why this discipline is important and what families, family office executives, and family advisors should do to stay focused on in this specialized field of ODD.
Maura leads us through the different types of operational risks family offices need to understand and mitigate and outlines the various dimensions of ODD that she covers in her work with family offices.
One practical need and challenge for family offices is how to assess managers and vendors for operational risks. Maura talks about this need and how family office leaders should think about and manage these external risks that are affecting their operation.
Maura explains how family leaders and family office executives should think about the value of ODD and offers her tips on the best methods and tools to articulate, measure, and mitigate these operational risks.
Enjoy this highly instructional conversation with a deep expert in the ODD discipline as applied to family enterprises and family offices.
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Today, it is my pleasure to speak with Brad Fisher, founder and Managing Partner of The Scalable Leadership Group, a firm that works with Growth Stage Company leaders to streamline their operations and accelerate their progress. Brad works with business leaders who want to unlock the long-term potential of their companies and their families. He speaks and writes about scalability, leadership, and family business matters. He recently published a book called Family Business Abundance.
Brad has devoted most of his career to entrepreneurship in the business-to-business, technology, healthcare, manufacturing, family business, and private equity investment arenas. He has built, acquired, and consulted with companies across a wide range of industries. Brad is a former council member of FOX, and former member of the FOX Advisory Board, and a true friend and frequent collaborator of the FOX team and our broader community.
Brad has dedicated much of his advisory work to the pursuit of scalability and helping businesses and families achieve their full potential. He talks about what scalability means, especially in the context of a family enterprise or a family office, and what are the accelerators and impediments to achieving scalability.
Brad has formulated the concept of "the second leap". He offers a definition of this concept for our audience and describes its significance in the growth and scalability journey of businesses, families, and family offices.
One practical tool Brad has developed is the "Six Scalabilities" framework. He describes the framework and its components, and shares his tips on how family businesses, family leaders, and family offices can use it to engineer their growth and evolution.
An important and practical metric Brad talks about is the "Leadership Leverage Ratio". He elaborates on how this KPI is defined and measured, and how leaders in the family or the family office can use it to advance the scalability of their organizations.
Do not miss this engaging conversation with a widely recognized long-time practitioner, thought leader, and advisor in the family office and family business space.
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Today, I'm excited to speak with Chris Bull, Chief Executive Officer of Northern Jet, one of the nation's premier private aviation companies delivering personalized travel solutions for entrepreneurs, executives, and families across the United States. With more than two decades of experience in aviation leadership, Chris has guided Northern Jet through a period of significant growth and transformation — most notably leading the 2023 merger of SpeedBird and Northern Jet Management, which established the company as one of the largest independently owned private aviation providers in the country.
Under Chris's leadership, Northern Jet continues to set the standard for safety, reliability, and authentic client relationships, offering fractional ownership, jet management, and jet card programs designed to help clients make the most of their most valuable asset — time. Chris and his company, Northern Jet, are valued specialist advisor members of FOX and we are thrilled to have their expertise within our community.
There has been a lot of change and developments in the private aviation space, especially in the past few years, so we start with a quick overview of the space. Chris offers his definition of private aviation these days and describes the evergreen benefits that attract UHNW clients to fly private. He also outlines the most notable trends that have been reshaping this niche industry.
Chris then outlines the key options UHNW clients face and often must decide between, covering all the "4 lanes" of private aviation, as he defines them. He describes these different avenues and compares their pros and cons.
Chris provides a comprehensive overview of the different types of vendors and players who comprise the private aviation space, equipping our listeners with all they need to know about these distinct companies serving the private aviation space. He also outlines how his company's consultative model works in helping clients navigate the choices and decisions they face in this sector.
Finally, Chriss provides some practical tips and tools he recommends to families and family offices who are considering or are actively utilizing various private aviation services and operating models.
This is a highly instructive conversation with one of the top advisors and service providers in the private aviation industry specializing in solutions for UHNW individuals, enterprise families, and their family offices.
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Today, I am pleased to speak with Pascal Köppel, Managing Director, Head of Investment Management and Chief Investment Officer at Vontobel Swiss Financial Advisers. Pascal and his teams are responsible for the discretionary portfolio management, selection of suitable investment vehicles and development of specific client solutions as well as the investment advisory mandates.
He joined UBS in 2004 as Head of Active Advisory in Zurich where he was responsible for the investing of CHF15bn in assets and managed a team of 40 investment specialists providing investment advisory services for clients worldwide. Prior to joining UBS, Pascal worked for a hedge fund company in Switzerland where his focus was on the selection of investment opportunities worldwide as well as structuring of investment vehicles.
An increasing number of UHNW individuals and successful families in the US are exploring global diversification strategies. Pascal explains why US wealth owners and their family offices are opting to custody and invest assets in other jurisdictions across the globe. Pascal's firm specializes in investing in Switzerland, but he talks about all the top jurisdictions UHNW families are choosing to invest in nowadays and describes their respective attractions.
Pascal helps us explore the practical applications and use cases UHNW investors are pursuing with their global diversification strategies. He describes the key motivations and objectives for wealthy clients who are moving assets to other global jurisdictions.
A key practical consideration for families and their family offices is the selection of a foreign broker. Pascal shares his views on what they need to look for in a foreign broker, including what certifications, designations, or other capabilities families need to be aware of and seek when they evaluate foreign brokers.
Enjoy this informative conversation with a leading expert in multi-jurisdictional investment advisory services for global UHNW clients.
This communication is for informational purposes only to discuss general market activity or industry trends and does not constitute an offer, invitation, or recommendation to invest in any strategy or security.
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