This week I have the great pleasure of unveiling our editorial advisory board for Crain Currency. Our team has been diligently seeking the brightest minds in the family office community to help us curate the most actionable content for our readership. Our board comprises a diverse mix of people who represent family businesses, family offices, multi-family office professionals and well-respected thought leaders. I encourage you to check out the list to see who made the cut.
And speaking of thought leaders in our industry, we showcase Joe Reilly, longtime family office adviser and the current director of The Inheritance Project. For our recurring column Keeping Tabs: What Are We Reading, Watching and Listening To, Reilly shares his love for the literary world as well as some industry podcasts he’s currently listening to, including Family Business Voice and Wealth Actually, among many others.
As always, we appreciate any comments, ideas and insights that would make this newsletter more useful. I look forward to growing this family office community with your help. Please email me at [email protected].
HANDPICKED: Meet the Crain Currency advisory board
By KRISTEN OLIVERI
Crain Currency is a publication committed to bringing wisdom to family wealth. This community thrives on relationships and the thought leadership of those who make a difference in the industry. In the spirit of collaboration, we have assembled an editorial advisory board to help create meaningful content that resonates.
Below is a snapshot of our board and their biographies. For those who are interested in joining the board in the years to come, please send all inquiries to [email protected].
KC Crain | President and CEO of Crain Communications Inc.
KC oversees the day-to-day operations of Crain Communications as well as the company’s family of brands, including Automotive News and Ad Age. Previously, he held roles as COO, executive vice president and director of corporate operations, vice president and group publisher. He started at Crain as a reporter for Automotive News.
Will Dickson | President of Marketplace Homes
In addition to leading Marketplace Homes, a national property manager and broker of newly constructed homes, Will Dickson helps manage the Dickson Family Office, focusing on commodities trading and other alternative investments. His experience includes roles at Walleye Trading Advisors and Citigroup Commodities. Will holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Kalamazoo College, a general course degree from the London School of Economics and a master’s in professional accounting from the University of Texas at Austin.
Ana Gonzalez | Director of Family Owned Business Institute
Besides directing the Family Owned Business Institute (FOBI), Ana Gonzalez is an associate professor of management at the Seidman College of Business at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. and master’s in management from Tulane University and a master's in economics and a bachelor's in industrial engineering from Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. Ana's research interests include entrepreneurship, corporate governance and sustainability in family businesses with a cross-cultural perspective.
Richard Hartmann | Senior Adviser and Co-Founder of Auctoris
As a senior adviser and co-founder of Auctoris, Richard Hartmann believes that private wealth remaining under family control does more to serve the needs, goals, values and objectives of the family, their community, their charities and society as a whole than transferring up to 45% by default through taxes and government. While in law school, he determined that he wanted to spend his career working with successful people perpetuating success. Richard has over 40 years of experience working with ultra-high-net-worth families and their investment advisers, attorneys, CPAs and family offices.
Kristin Hull | Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Nia Impact Capital
Kristin Hull is a conscious investor empowering individuals, families and organizations to invest in alignment with their values and for the world they want to see. She launched Nia Global Solutions in 2013 to bring activism and impact investing into the public markets. In doing so, she developed Nia’s six solutions-focused investment themes, weaving a gender lens throughout the investment thesis. In Oakland, California, in 2010, Kristin founded Nia Community Investments, a 100% mission-aligned investment fund focused on social justice and environmental sustainability.
Sean Koh | CEO of Koherent
Sean Koh, aka “ESKOH”— which stands for “Every Situation Kan Offer Hope” — is the inventor of “Proof of Reception” and an expert in cross-border transactions across finance, technology, infrastructure, media and entertainment, having produced, written and performed music throughout the world. Since completing his undergraduate studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, he has structured various financings with leading global institutions, sourcing billions of dollars worth of investments. In 2016, Sean became one of the first market makers to globalize distributed ledger technology (DLT). Through his family office, Koherent Inc., he has co-chaired a number of summits for the United Nations, World Economic Forum and other international communities.
Donald Levitt | President of Levitt Consulting Inc.
Donald Levitt is a recognized authority in helping leaders, teams and organizations reach their goals. For over 30 years, he has consulted with and coached senior executives at global corporations, public institutions and family-owned businesses. Donald has worked in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, professional services, engineering and construction, pharmaceuticals, distribution, financial services and telecommunications.
Tommy Mayes | Managing Director and Adviser of SunGate Capital
Tommy Mayes manages a single-family investment office with interests in real estate, technology, medical imaging, real estate, banking and insurance. In conjunction with his role at SunGate Capital, he is the past president and a board member of Investors Preferred Life Insurance Co., a specialized private-placement life insurance carrier with over $1.4 billion in assets. Tommy has broad experience as an investor, executive and adviser. He has considerable experience advising many successful multigenerational families and the advisers who serve them in handling investments, governance, risk management, family office structure and succession.
Michael Moody | Professor of Philanthropic Studies, Indiana University
Michael Moody is a professor of philanthropic studies at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University, Indianapolis. Before this, he was the first holder of the Frey Foundation Chair for Family Philanthropy at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. Trained as a cultural sociologist with a Ph.D. from Princeton, Michael is co-author of the bestselling books Understanding Philanthropy: Its Meaning and Mission, The Philanthropy Reader and Generation Impact: How Next Gen Donors Are Revolutionizing Giving. He is a frequent speaker and sought-after commentator on philanthropic trends whose work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Forbes, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review and many others.
Kara Pass | President and CEO of Market Street Trust Co.
As the president and CEO of Market Street Trust, Kara's core mission is to foster a culture where excellence is the norm, both in the services and the environment she creates for her team. The firm seeks to elevate the client experience by building a foundation of deep understanding, care and trust. A shared family office is ideal for families who want all the features and benefits of a single-family office without the administrative burdens of establishing their own. As a client-owned shared family office, Market Street’s interconnected network of families derives immense value from one another and their dedicated team.
Steve Prostano | Executive Director of the UHNWI Institute
In a career spanning over three decades, Steve Prostano has distinguished himself as an innovator and thought leader in wealth management, multi-family offices and global financial services. He has designed and built leading global and national multi-family offices and asset management firms and has advised industry leaders and ultra-high-net-worth families and family offices throughout his career. Before joining the Institute, Steve was the head of Family Wealth Advisors, a division of Bank of the West Wealth Management, an affiliate of BNP Paribas. There he built the first global multi-family office in the U.S. Additionally, he served on the Bank of the West’s Senior Management Committee. Steve is also the founder of The UHNW Institute, a nonprofit independent think tank and publisher of thought leadership content for UHNW families, family offices, their advisers and the financial services industry.
Josh Roach | Managing Director at Meritage Group
Josh Roach is a trusted peer and longtime member of the single-family office community. Over the past 15 years, he has created significant social capital through his efforts to build like-minded networks and collaborative models to merge common interests and objectives, pool and leverage specialized industry knowledge and skill sets, and optimize alignment between asset owners in co-investment vehicles. Josh is managing director of Meritage Group, a private investment firm and investment family office for the Simons family and the principals of Renaissance Technologies. Meritage Group is a fundamentally oriented firm investing across all asset classes, including controlling stakes in direct private operating platforms. Before coming to Meritage, Josh was co-manager and family principal of LCP (Lloyd Capital Partners LLC), an investment company vehicle for the Henry Demarest Lloyd family, whose wealth creation originated from its shared ownership in the Chicago Tribune starting in 1873 through to its public listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1983.
Kerri Scott | COO of Mt. Vernon Investments
Kerri Scott is COO of the family office for Kenny and Lisa Troutt. She is responsible for developing strategies that promote wealth growth and sustainability or mitigate risk for the family. Troutt was the founder of Excel Communications, which she ultimately sold to Bell Canada in 2000. Before joining Dallas-based Mt. Vernon Investments in 2005, Kerri was a senior manager in the tax department of PricewaterhouseCoopers. At PwC, she specialized in providing comprehensive wealth management and tax services to high-net-worth individuals.
Michael Stack | President and Chief Investment Officer of Pierce Street Capital
Michael Stack oversees management of the single-family office and global investments across all asset classes. Michael spent the previous nine years as the chief investment officer of Genus Holdings LLC, a single-family office investing globally across all asset classes. Before joining Genus, he spent 18 years with SRB Corp. building an investment management company focused on managing insurance company assets and directly managing investments across all asset classes. Michael is a graduate of Stonehill College, earned his MBA from Boston University, is a chartered financial analyst (CFA) and serves on the boards of nonprofits, startups, asset management firms and limited partners advisory committees (LPACs).
Rodney Sullivan | Executive Director of the Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Rodney Sullivan is a leading industry researcher and thinker with over 25 years of experience. His career has focused on elevating and strengthening the global investment community through rigorous thought leadership that bridges theory and practice and delivering innovative investment solutions. He conducts research and publishes widely in scholarly journals and magazines and speaks regularly as a recognized expert on global investment management. Rodney currently serves as executive director of the Richard A. Mayo Center for Asset Management at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, where he leads all center activities and teaches courses in investment management. He is also a co-editor of the Journal of Alternative Investments and founder of Vesteer Wealth Management, an independent, fee-only registered investment adviser. Held to a fiduciary standard, Vesteer puts clients’ interests first by keeping costs down while providing comprehensive, commission-free objective advice and investment management designed to help clients grow and preserve wealth from generation to generation.
Lex van Dam | Executive at Rinkelberg Capital
Lex van Dam began his career in 1992 at Goldman Sachs in New York and London, where he ran the proprietary trading desk. In 2002 he moved to GLG Partners, where he ran the European Opportunities Fund. Since 2006, Lex has been with Rinkelberg Capital, a Dutch single-family office based in London, where his current focus is on sourcing investment deals. Lex is also the founder of the SFO Alliance, which is the largest peer-to-peer community of single-family office investment executives and principals with assets over $400 million.
Keeping tabs with Joe Reilly — what are we reading, watching and listening to
The family office space is filled with interesting people who have access to so many facets of the world due to the nature of the business. These renaissance men and women like to stay curious about a range of subjects spanning the arts and sciences. In this column, we ask three simple questions to industry heavyweights: What are you reading, watching and listening to.
Joe Reilly | Family office adviser and director of The Inheritance Project
I’m reading:
Leo and His Circle by Annie Cohen-Solal, a biography of Leo Castelli.
Wealth 3.0 by James Grubman, Dennis Jaffe and Kristen Keffeler: I did a podcast with Jim Grubman to discuss his ideas about where wealth management has been and where it is going.
Gibbsville, PA by John O’Hara: It has a great short story about a boy’s experience of the 1918 flu pandemic traveling around with a small-town doctor. We got off easy.
Powerhouse CAA by James Andrew Miller: The sections where Michael Ovitz brokers the deal for Matsushita to buy MCA are fascinating if you like dealmaking.
Security Analysis by Benjamin Graham and David L. Dodd, Seventh Edition: This version of the classic, first published in 1934, is notable for the all-star lineup of contributors. Editor Seth Klarman writes the preface, and there are introductions from James Grant, Roger Lowenstein, Howard Marks, Dominique Mielle (who wrote the excellent Damsel in Distressed), Todd Combs, Seth Alexander of MIT, Nancy Zimmerman of Bracebridge and others. Like a great book within a book.
Listening To:
"Invest Like The Best," Patrick O’Shaughnessy
"Capital Allocators," Ted Seides
"Wealth Actually," Frazer Rice
"Wealth of Wisdom," Tom McCullough
"Family Business Voice," Ramia El Agamy
"Financial Advisor Success Podcast," Michael Kitces
Watching:
I watch old stuff. I’m working through the movies of Kurosawa. Most excellent.
LOOSE CHANGE
Largest Viennese imperial and royal jewelry collection smashes expectations at auction: More than 82% of lots sold above their high estimate for a collection that traced its provenance from the three most important European royal houses linked to the Austrian Hapsburg dynasty.
The best New York, Chicago and D.C. restaurants, according to Michelin: The biggest news came out of Chicago, where Smyth was named one of only 14 three-star restaurants in the country.
Adviser Investments rebrands as RWA Wealth Partners in wake of merger with wealth adviser: The firm has more than $15 billion in total client assets under management and advisement.
Help us with a story: We’re working on a story about guarding against complacency as a family business. If you have any comments on the topic, reach out to [email protected].