Location

Union League Club
38 E 37th St, NYC

DATE

Wednesday Jan 17, 2018

2018 AGENDA

Printable Agenda Here.

2017 Conference Info Here

7:45 AM
REGISTRATION & BREAKFAst Sponsored by alliancebernstein(AB)

8:10 AM
WELCOME & INTRODUCTION

8:20 AM
Do You Need a Different Mindset to Create a Fortune Than to Hold Onto One?

Dennis Jaffe, PhD, Wise Counsel Research
John W. Ambrecht, Ambrecht & McDermott (Moderator)

9:10 AM
Best Governance Practices for Family Held Operating Businesses

Nancy Drozdow, CFAR
Mark E. Haranzo, Holland & Knight (Moderator)

10:00 AM
BREAK Sponsored by northern trust

10:20 AM
Governance Tools for Global Families

Governance and Dispute Prevention Tools for Large, Family Controlled Businesses
Dr. Manuel Liatowitsch, Schellenberg Wittmer

The Organization and Governance of Family Wealth Management Structures - General Observations and Two Case Studies
Dr. Mario A. König, Marxer & Partner

11:40 AM
How to Avoid Unnecessary Litigation — Learning From Other People’s Mistakes

Zena M. Tamler, Sullivan & Cromwell
Thomas J. Wiegand, MoloLamken
Robin Rathmell, Kobre & Kim
John E. Oden, AllianceBernstein (AB) (Moderator)

12:30 PM
LUNCH Sponsored by Willow street group

1:15 PM
KEYNOTE: Purposeful Planning in Transitioning of a Family Enterprise — Practical Tools

John A. Warnick, Esq., Purposeful Planning Institute

2:15 PM
Family Education and Family Vision — What Actually Works?

Mitzi Perdue, Chair of Perdue Farms Education Committee
Anne Jeffrey Wright, Jeffrey Family Communication Officer
Edouard Thijssen, Trusted Family (Moderator)

3:15 PM
BREAK SPONSORED BY Meritus Trust Company

3:30 PM
How to Govern Your Family Office — Key Structuring Lessons From a Twenty-five Year Veteran

James J. Ruddy, JJR Family Trust Consulting, LLC
Babetta von Albertini, PhD, ATM Capital Partners (Moderator)

4:30 PM
KEYNOTE: How to Create a Family Culture that Lasts More than a Century

Mitzi Perdue, Author

Babetta von Albertini, Ph.D. | Chair

Babetta von Albertini is the Chair of the Institute for Family Governance. She is an expert on U.S. tax law and governance who has advised international families and closely held businesses for approaching 20 years. She is General Counsel of ATM Capital Partners LLC, a single-family office, and separately continues to advise large international and domestic families on their tax, governance, and succession planning. Babetta is a dual-qualified common law/civil law attorney (admitted to the bars of New York and Zurich, Switzerland) and holds a Tax LL.M. from NYU and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Zurich. Previously an international estate planning attorney with Withers for nine years and a corporate finance attorney with Shearman and Sterling for three years, Babetta currently also serves as an elected U.S. representative on the STEP Global Council.

John E. Oden | Vice-Chair

John is a Principal and twenty-five year veteran of AllianceBernstein ("AB"), a global money management and research firm with over U.S. $500 billion under management through forty-eight offices in twenty-three countries. He has senior responsibilities in working with the firm’s non-U.S. and offshore clients, and currently heads the firm’s family office and private wealth business in Asia, in addition to similar client responsibilities in the U.S. John is the Founder of the China-U.S. Business Alliance, an organization of the senior professional advisors in both the U.S. and Asia who concentrate their business activities in China. He is a former Chairman of the New York Branch of STEP. Prior to AB, John spent ten years in real estate investment banking as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield in New York, responsible globally for the firm’s business with financial institutions, including oversight for joint venture relationships in Japan and the U.K. John has served on numerous non-profit and charitable boards and investment committees, including Southwestern University, the St. George’s Society of New York, the Merchant’s House Museum of New York, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Greater Tumen Initiative in Beijing, China. A strong supporter of athletics, John writes and speaks about the sport of boxing. His first book, White Collar Boxing – One Man’s Journey From the Office to the Ring, was published in 2005. It was followed in 2009 by Life in the Ring – Lessons & Inspirations from the Sport of Boxing. He holds BA and MBA degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dennis T. Jaffe, Ph.D.| Vice-Chair

Dr. Jaffe, a San Francisco-based advisor to families about family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy, recently completed the working papers Governing the Family Enterprise: The Evolution of Family Councils, Assemblies and Constitutions, Releasing the Potential of the Rising Generation, and Good Fortune: Building a Hundred Year Family Enterprise, published by Wise Counsel Research, based on his current research with global multi-generational family enterprises.

He is author (or co-author) of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations;  Stewardship in your Family Enterprise: Developing Responsible Family Leadership Across Generations, and Working With the Ones You Love, as well as management books Rekindling Commitment, Getting Your Organization to Change and Take this Work and Love It. His global insights have led to teaching or consulting engagements in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Family Firm Institute recently awarded him the 2017 International Award for service, and in 2005 he received the Beckhard Award for service to the field. He has a BA degree in Philosophy, MA in Management, and Ph.D. in sociology, all from Yale University, and is professor emeritus of organizational systems and psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco.

Mitzi Perdue | Families Liaison

Author, speaker, and businesswoman Mitzi Perdue holds a BA with honors degree from Harvard University and an MPA from the George Washington University. She combines the experiences of two long-time family businesses. Her father Ernest Henderson co-founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain and her late husband Frank Perdue was the second generation in the poultry company that today operates in more than 100 countries. Mitzi loves to point out that the Henderson family business began in 1890 with the Henderson Estate Company. If you combine the 127 years since it began, and the 97 years that Perdue Farms has been in business, she represents 224 of family history. She likes nothing better than to share tips for what worked in the two long-running families that she’s a part of. Recently Mitzi authored How to Make Your Family Business Last: Techniques, Advice, Checklists, and Resources for Keeping the Family Business in the Family.

Rosie von Lila | NextGen

Rosie is a Millennial (also known as “an adult under 40”) and our NextGen liaison. She is passionate about  politics and governance, and currently works as a management consultant. Based in New York and working frequently in Washington, D.C., the Midwest and California, Rosie speaks around the world on how to increase stakeholder engagement, and advocates for civic participation. She is the creator and host of the What Comes Now podcast, and is an advisor and consultant to Burning Man headquarters. Rosie has been invited to be a guest at the U.S. Pentagon several times, and was a guest lecturer at the U.S. National Defense University. She is frequently invited to participate in strategic discussions about diversity and collaboration. Rosie is a member of NEXUS and formerly served on the Board of Directors for Bay Area Council (BAC), the most powerful trade policy advocacy group in northern California.

John W. Ambrecht | Ambrecht & McDermott, LLP

John W. Ambrecht is a senior partner at Ambrecht and McDermott and focuses his practice on integrating sophisticated estate and tax planning with family business succession planning, including developing appropriate transitional structures with an emphasis on conflict resolution among generations and constructing a lasting framework for family business management and ownership succession. John’s practice also includes sophisticated multi-state domestic trusts and estate planning, national and international asset protection, and tax controversies (IRS).

Barbara R. Hauser, J.D., M.A., TEP

Barbara combines a strong trusts & estates legal background (Wellesley College, Penn Law, U.S. Supreme Court Clerkship, law firm partnerships) with a current advisory role for wealthy families and their family offices. 

She has worked with many global families, including in Saudi Arabia, is the author of International Family Governance and International Estate Planning. She is the Advisory Editor of the STEP Global Family Office Handbook and of the fourth edition of Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions. She has been appointed to serve as Editor-in-Chief of The International Family Offices Journal. She chairs the international committee for the U.S. journal Trusts & Estates. She also founded the Linked In group “International Family Governance.”

She helps families create Family Constitutions, Family Councils, and Family Offices, and also provides an independent evaluation of family trust documents. She is an independent Board member of the Pitcairn Company, a recognized leader in the family office industry.

Barbara has received a number of awards and is active in The International Academy of Estate and Trust Law, l’Union Internationale des Avocats, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, the Wealth Advisors Forum and the Collaboration for Family Flourishing. She has published articles in STEP and FFI. She is a frequent speaker for groups in many countries.

Edouard Thijssen

Edouard Thijssen is one of the Co-Founders of Trusted Family. With a passion for technology and innovation, he identified a gap in the market for a communications platform designed for multi-generational business families looking to communicate more efficiently in a secure manner. At age 21, he established Trusted Family.

Edouard is a 2007 graduate of the Solvay Business School, with an undergraduate management degree. He has also completed the Leading the Family Business program at IMD, Switzerland. Edouard was on his way to the London School of Economics when his entrepreneurial instincts drove him to launch Trusted Family. The rest is history. As founder, he led the company as CEO until 2011. Then acted as Head of Americas and concentrated on Business Development and Client Services in North and South America. Today, Edouard serves as Co-Founder and CEO - since September 2016.

Babetta von Albertini, Ph.D.

Babetta von Albertini is the Chair of the Institute for Family Governance. She is an expert on U.S. tax law and governance who has advised international families and closely held businesses for approaching 20 years. She is General Counsel of ATM Capital Partners LLC, a single-family office, and separately continues to advise large international and domestic families on their tax, governance, and succession planning. Babetta is a dual-qualified common law/civil law attorney (admitted to the bars of New York and Zurich, Switzerland) and holds a Tax LL.M. from NYU and a Ph.D. in law from the University of Zurich. Previously an international estate planning attorney with Withers for nine years and a corporate finance attorney with Shearman and Sterling for three years, Babetta currently also serves as an elected U.S. representative on the STEP Global Council.

John E. Oden

John is a Principal and twenty-five year veteran of AllianceBernstein ("AB"), a global money management and research firm with over U.S. $500 billion under management through forty-eight offices in twenty-three countries. He has senior responsibilities in working with the firm’s non-U.S. and offshore clients, and currently heads the firm’s family office and private wealth business in Asia, in addition to similar client responsibilities in the U.S. John is the Founder of the China-U.S. Business Alliance, an organization of the senior professional advisors in both the U.S. and Asia who concentrate their business activities in China. He is a former Chairman of the New York Branch of STEP. Prior to AB, John spent ten years in real estate investment banking as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield in New York, responsible globally for the firm’s business with financial institutions, including oversight for joint venture relationships in Japan and the U.K. John has served on numerous non-profit and charitable boards and investment committees, including Southwestern University, the St. George’s Society of New York, the Merchant’s House Museum of New York, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Greater Tumen Initiative in Beijing, China. A strong supporter of athletics, John writes and speaks about the sport of boxing. His first book, White Collar Boxing – One Man’s Journey From the Office to the Ring, was published in 2005. It was followed in 2009 by Life in the Ring – Lessons & Inspirations from the Sport of Boxing. He holds BA and MBA degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dennis T. Jaffe, Ph.D.

Dr. Jaffe, a San Francisco-based advisor to families about family business, governance, wealth and philanthropy, recently completed the working papers Governing the Family Enterprise: The Evolution of Family Councils, Assemblies and Constitutions, Releasing the Potential of the Rising Generation, and Good Fortune: Building a Hundred Year Family Enterprise, published by Wise Counsel Research, based on his current research with global multi-generational family enterprises.

He is author (or co-author) of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations;  Stewardship in your Family Enterprise: Developing Responsible Family Leadership Across Generations, and Working With the Ones You Love, as well as management books Rekindling Commitment, Getting Your Organization to Change and Take this Work and Love It. His global insights have led to teaching or consulting engagements in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. The Family Firm Institute recently awarded him the 2017 International Award for service, and in 2005 he received the Beckhard Award for service to the field. He has a BA degree in Philosophy, MA in Management, and Ph.D. in sociology, all from Yale University, and is professor emeritus of organizational systems and psychology at Saybrook University in San Francisco.

John W. Ambrecht, Ambrecht & McDermott, LLP

John W. Ambrecht is a senior partner at Ambrecht and McDermott and focuses his practice on integrating sophisticated estate and tax planning with family business succession planning, including developing appropriate transitional structures with an emphasis on conflict resolution among generations and constructing a lasting framework for family business management and ownership succession. John’s practice also includes sophisticated multi-state domestic trusts and estate planning, national and international asset protection, and tax controversies (IRS).

Edouard Thijssen

Edouard Thijssen is one of the Co-Founders of Trusted Family. With a passion for technology and innovation, he identified a gap in the market for a communications platform designed for multi-generational business families looking to communicate more efficiently in a secure manner. At age 21, he established Trusted Family.

Edouard is a 2007 graduate of the Solvay Business School, with an undergraduate management degree. He has also completed the Leading the Family Business program at IMD, Switzerland. Edouard was on his way to the London School of Economics when his entrepreneurial instincts drove him to launch Trusted Family. The rest is history. As founder, he led the company as CEO until 2011. Then acted as Head of Americas and concentrated on Business Development and Client Services in North and South America. Today, Edouard serves as Co-Founder and CEO - since September 2016.

Dr. Mario A. König

Mario A. König is a partner in the private client department of Marxer & Partner Rechtsanwälte in Vaduz, Principality of Liechtenstein. He graduated from Karl-Franzens-University in Graz, Austria, and holds an LL.M. degree from Fordham Law School in New York. He is a member of the Liechtenstein and of the New York State Bar Associations. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, London.

Mario primarily advises families on family governance and on the establishment and governance of family wealth management structures, including complex family holding company structures and ancillary regulatory and tax matters. Mario also represents clients in arbitration proceedings and acts as an arbitrator. Mario is the Liechtenstein contributor to the International Guide to Money Laundering Law and Practice, and has written several articles on Liechtenstein foundation and trust law as well as on alternative dispute resolution. He is a regular lecturer at international conferences.

Nancy Drozdow

Nancy Drozdow is a founder of CFAR, Inc., and leads the firm's family business practice as well as CFAR's Strategy group. She is a member of CFAR's Board of Directors. Nancy is known for her expertise as a thinking partner to leaders of owner-led firms, including family businesses. Nancy understands the questions on these leaders' minds, and is skilled at helping them analyze and act on issues of risk, delegation, competition, continuity and exit. She blends quantitative analysis with qualitative insight, helping leaders understand and address both the concrete business challenges as well as the emotional and unspoken issues that can cloud strategic vision. Nancy helps her clients test options and make hard choices, and work through the structures, processes, people and metrics that can stand in the way of productive action. She is a founder of the Family Firm Institute and an FFI Fellow, and served on the organization's original Board. Nancy holds an MBA in Strategy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. CFAR has a 30-year history as a private, boutique management consulting firm (and before that as Wharton’s largest research center) specializing in strategy, organizational change and collaboration.  In both 2016 and 2017 CFAR has been named to Forbes list of America’s Best Management Consulting Firms.

Mark E. Haranzo

Mark’s practice is focused on domestic and international private client matters for affluent individuals and their families.  His clients include entrepreneurs, corporate executives, family offices, real estate developers, business owners and investment bankers, as well as artists, writers, collectors and philanthropists. Mark has more than twenty years experience in all aspects of estate and gift planning for individuals and families, many with complex multi-generational or multi-jurisdictional issues. He regularly advises corporate and individual fiduciaries and beneficiaries on all aspects of trust and estate administration. He also represents clients in connection with disputes including Will and Trust contests, fiduciary appointments and contested accountings. Mark is a Fellow of ACTEC (American College of Trusts and Estate Counsel) and a member of STEP.

Dr. Manuel Liatowitsch

Manuel Liatowitsch is a Litigation Partner in Schellenberg Wittmer’s Zurich Office. He represents clients in commercial disputes in Swiss courts and international arbitrations, including disputes about family/privately held companies. He also acts as an arbitrator. He further specializes in complex estate disputes and advises entrepreneurs and families on governance and succession in family businesses, and on estate planning and philanthropy. He is a member of the firm's management board. Manuel has authored various publications on private international law and international litigation and is a regular lecturer at the University of Zurich. 

Mitzi Perdue

Author, speaker, and businesswoman Mitzi Perdue holds a BA with honors degree from Harvard University and an MPA from the George Washington University. She is a past president of the 35,000-member American Agri-Women, she’s a former syndicated columnist for Scripps Howard, and her television series, Country Magazine, was syndicated to 76 stations. She’s the founder of CERES Farms, the family-owned commercial and agricultural real estate investment company that has owned rice fields, commercial and residential real estate, and today, the family vineyards sell wine grapes to wineries such as Mondavi, Bogle, Folie a Deux, and Toasted Head.

Mitzi combines the experiences of two long-time family businesses.  Her father Ernest Henderson co-founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain and her late husband Frank Perdue was the second generation in the poultry company that today operates in more than 100 countries.

She loves to point out that the Henderson family business began in 1890 with the Henderson Estate Company. If you combine the 127 years since it began, and the 97 years that Perdue Farms has been in business, she represents 224 of family history.  

Recently she authored How to Make Your Family Business Last: Techniques, Advice, Checklists, and Resources for Keeping the Family Business in the Family.

Mitzi Perdue likes nothing better than to share tips for what worked in the two long-running families that she’s a part of.

Robin Rathmell

Robin Rathmell is dual-qualified as an English barrister and U.S. lawyer at the global disputes and investigations firm Kobre & Kim. He represents individuals and institutions in high-value, contentious offshore trusts matters, commercial and cross-border litigation, and asset forfeiture defense. Rob brings a sophisticated understanding of the U.S. and English courts, and U.S. and offshore legal systems, to commercial, contentious trusts involving cross-border legal issues. His litigation experience spans the majority of the world's offshore centers, including Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands, the Cook Islands, the Bahamas, Switzerland and Bermuda. Before joining Kobre & Kim, Rob practiced with Serle Court in London, where he focused on international commercial litigation and offshore trusts disputes.

James J. Ruddy

James J. Ruddy is an advisor and consultant to families, family offices and private trust companies. He specializes in helping families in the planning, structuring and organizing of these entities as well as developing a template for family ownership and governance.

Until December 31, 2017 Mr. Ruddy was the Co-Chairman and Manager of Dillon Trust Company, a private trust company incorporated in South Dakota formed exclusively for the benefit of the descendants of Clarence Dillon. His primary responsibilities included the estate, tax and planning related to the Dillon family owned business and privately held investments currently held in trusts and financial advisor to the senior Dillon family members. He served on the Trust Committee and Investment Committee. He was a Director and Trustee of two Family Foundations and a Director and Manager of many Dillon Family Corporations, Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies.

Before becoming Chairman, Mr. Ruddy was President and Chief Executive Officer of Dillon Trust Company, LLC which he helped create, organize, staff and implement in 2006. He was responsible for the oversight of all the family trusts, foundations, common trust fund investments and private business holdings. He served as Executor and was individual Co-Trustee on many family trusts. Mr. Ruddy was also Vice-Chairman, Director and former President of Keswick Management, Inc., a financial services firm that oversees the asset allocation, accounting, tax and financial reporting in connection with the Dillon family office. The family office has been in existence since 1924 and currently serves 68 family members.

Zena M. Tamler

Zena Tamler joined S&C’s Estates and Personal Group in 2001 and was elected partner in October 2009. She represents high net worth individuals and families in connection with their personal legal matters, with particular focus on sophisticated tax and estate planning matters and the structuring of family business affairs. Ms. Tamler also represents fiduciaries in connection with the administration of estates and trusts and has experience with a broad range of international tax and estate planning matters. Ms. Tamler is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) and has been recognized by New York Super Lawyers since 2011. She is also Chair of the Trusts and Estates Group of the UJA-Federation of New York. She is a member of the Committee on Trusts, Estates & Surrogate’s Courts and a past member of the Committee on Estate and Gift Taxation of the New York City Bar Association, and a member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP). Ms. Tamler is a member of the New York Board of the Anti-Defamation League, prior co-chair of its Lawyer’s Division, and co-chair of its Professional Advisory Committee on Planned Charitable Giving. She is a member of the Board of Autism Science Foundation.

John “John A” Warnick, Esq., Founder of the Purposeful Planning Institute and Fellow of the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel and author of the Purposeful Trust & Gift Handbook.

John A. Warnick, who family, friends and clients know as “John A”, describes himself as a “recovering tax attorney.”  After practicing for thirty years as a tax and legal advisor to wealthy families, he left the large law firm he was a partner in to pursue his passion of assisting clients transition their wealth more purposefully.  He works with clients, and their team of advisors, to ensure that the impact of their technical planning will be a positive force in the lives of the rising generations of their family.  His blog, Seedlings, provides suggestions on powerful but easy ways in which we can make non-financial gifts to our families and communities.  John A has prepared himself for this professional service through a long-term collaboration with a team of wealth psychologists, family wealth counselors and family business consultants.  But he is quick to point out “my greatest teachers have been my clients.  It is through them I discovered the formula for producing not just tax-wise plans but plans that promote family harmony, individual growth and long-term preservation of family wealth.”

Mr. Warnick is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.  He has served as the Philanthropic Editor of the Journal of Practical Estate Planning and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Advisors in Philanthropy.  Mr. Warnick co-authored "Selecting a Trust Situs in the 21st Century" as well as numerous professional journal and law review articles.  Mr. Warnick received a BA magna cum laude from Brigham Young University and his JD from George Washington University with honors.

Thomas J. Wiegand

Thomas J. Wiegand is a trial partner in the firm MoloLamken who represents clients in high stakes litigation in state and federal courts across the United States. Tom is involved in a wide range of lawsuits — he represents trustees in numerous lawsuits concerning billion-dollar RMBS (residential mortgage-backed securities) trusts against financial institutions who originated or warranted the trusts’ loans; has worked on all sides of class actions, including recently on behalf of retired NFL players as lead objectors to the NFL Concussion Settlement; has represented foreign governments in litigation in the United States; and has represented family offices in commercial disputes relating to investments. He also has advised numerous trust beneficiaries in evaluating potential claims against trustees and other parties, and has filed such actions in state and federal courts.

Tom received his B.A. degree in Economics from Yale University magna cum laude and then his J.D. degree from Harvard University. While at Harvard he worked extensively for Professor Roger Fisher, author of Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, and upon graduation he spent the first two years of his career as Professor Fisher’s assistant at the Harvard Negotiation Project, furthering negotiation theory and consulting on commercial and political conflicts. Tom brings his broad trial and conflict resolution experience to bear in helping individuals, corporations, and governments win disputes and solve problems.

Anne Jeffrey Wright

Anne Jeffrey Wright, RN, BSN, MHA, is a Columbus, Ohio native and 5th generation member of the Jeffrey family. Founded in 1876, Jeffrey Manufacturing Company introduced new approaches for mechanizing the coal mining process and produced machinery and heavy equipment from its headquarters and plant in Columbus with a domestic and global presence. In 1974, the Company sold its operating businesses and has operated as a single family investment office since then. Anne is active in her family’s office serving as the editor of a family newsletter, website and communication officer. She recently retired from a 42-year career in health care, most recently with Nemours, a children's health system that owns and operates the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware and Nemours Children's Hospital in Orlando, Florida, along with 50+ locations in Delaware, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Anne served for two decades as the Strategy & Business Development officer of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. She completed a B.S. in Nursing at Vanderbilt University and a Master’s in Health Administration at the University of Washington. Anne resides outside of Philadelphia in Ardmore, Pennsylvania and has two grown children. In her retirement, she is enjoying old and new hobbies, writing and travel, and involvement with the large families of which she feels fortunate to be a part.

Registration:
$750 for IFG/STEP/FFI/PPI Members
$950 for Non-members
$350 for Single Family Office
 

Membership:
Annual Membership
$50 per fiscal year