The co-president of the Family Office Association (FOA), Jennifer Katrulya is a partner at a national advisory and accounting firm, where she is responsible for developing strategic and channel relationships for the firm. She has 28 years of experience working with clients across the United States and internationally — including leading private equity and venture capital firms, health care organizations, high-growth technology companies, real estate development companies and real estate investment management firms, family offices, and a wide range of other clients.
Can you describe FOA’s new mission statement?
The Family Office Association's mission is aligned with its vision statement: "Unite, Thrive, Give: Preserve Legacies While Empowering Tomorrow to Better the World." We want our members to feel like they are part of an extended family and support system that "raises all ships" through a combination of live and digital events, thought leadership, best-practice resources and concierge support. There is a time and place to be in the presence of top national and global speakers and in more formal learning and business environments, and we are thrilled to offer that to our members. Our members and friends include some of the most respected multigenerational family offices, entrepreneurs, entertainers, athletes, dealmakers and other powerhouse business minds in the world. This commitment to innovation, growth, collaboration and success is very much a part of the culture of FOA and is closely tied to our mission.
It is also critically important that we offer a culture that feels very "family style," where members have opportunities to build true connections, collaboration and meaningful friendships. We are seeing that evolve in a pretty significant way, which is exciting. An increasing number of our Family Office and Resource Council members have actually started to plan their 2024 calendars around being able to attend FOA events, invite other families and make FOA an important part of their lives.
How does FOA view impact?
Mike Packman, FOA's chairman, is a firm believer in "doing well by doing good." He is involved in a number of philanthropic efforts and is very committed to helping improve the world we live in while continuing to achieve his own personal and professional success. So that is already a significant part of the culture of FOA that Rush Olney and I were introduced to as we became co-presidents of FOA. We then found that family offices, top universities, influential charitable organizations and foundations, and others, were asking for our input about opportunities to collaborate across the network, asking for introductions and wanting to find ways to come together. This led to the formation of the FOA Global Impact Community, one of several peer groups we are launching. The Global Impact Community will have 25 initial Founding Leadership Council members, including family office leaders, representatives from several universities, corporate and nonprofit leaders, and others who are already driving significant change and improvements. The council will meet monthly initially and then several times each year to discuss opportunities for the FOA community to continue to help "better the world," participate in setting the calendar of events and much more.
What do you have lined up for the 2024 season in terms of events?
FOA has been known for hosting and participating in a wide range of phenomenal events over the years, and that will certainly continue! We are committed to bringing our Family Office and Resource Council members together in a number of ways. Our access to top national and global speakers, thought leaders and other resources is setting the stage for what we are confident will be among the top family office events in the world in the year ahead. In 2024, this will include small group events at local restaurants and private homes, our seasonal retreats, master classes and salon events, small group adventures and trips, and peer community events.
How does lifestyle and wellness fit into programming for FOA?
This is something we will be speaking about a lot in 2024. As part of FOA's commitment to truly being a community for family offices and wealth accumulators, this includes helping each other live our best lives. I'll take this question to a bit more personal level than some of the others because I think it is really important as part of the heart of FOA's culture going forward. Some of FOA's leadership, as well as many of our members, are lifelong athletes; they are very focused on healthy eating, meditation and other things that they feel allow them to function at their best and enjoy long, productive lives. Personally, I am a doting auntie and want to be sure I am able to spend many years with my young niece and nephew. That said, nutrition and fitness are not things that were strengths in my upbringing and have been lifelong challenges for me. As a very real community of families helping families and making the most of our significant access to resources and support, we want to share these conversations openly and make this one more way we come together as an extended family. This of course also extends to supporting mental health and other aspects of wellness.
When it comes to lifestyle, this is where we want to have some fun! In our community of dealmakers, travelers, adventure seekers and families who are making positive changes in the world, we want to share and learn! Whether it's discussions about finance, travel, entertainment, fashion (couture, plus-size, fashion weeks and more), sports, or other interests, or more serious topics such as helping our family members age as comfortably and productively as possible, these will be active discussions and part of our events going forward.
Our next "Lifestyle and Wellness" event will be at Miami Art Week just next week!
When you look to the next several years, what are your goals for building out the organization?
The goals are really to achieve what we've set out in our vision and mission statements. As FOA continues to help families "Unite, Thrive and Give," we will be able to see the ways the community helps to improve and support the lives of our members and friends and increase the ways the community is able to share our success and resources with a world that desperately needs our help.