Centers & Institutes

Center for Family Enterprise

The Center for Family Enterprise is a research organization in the University of St. Thomas College of Business. We provide faculty and family business leaders with awareness, knowledge and skills about how best to run family and closely held businesses.

Our distinctive positioning involves a set of systemic, parallel planning strategies which promote health and growth in both family and business through managerial, owner, and board leadership.

Self-study underway

In September, Dr. Ritch Sorenson joined as the Opus Chair in Family Enterprise and has joined us in doing a self-study to identify programming that would be most helpful to family businesses and advisors for family businesses. 

The following activities are a part of that self-study:

• A board of advisors has been created to represent the family business community.  We are meeting with that board regarding programming.
• A survey is being conducted of family business owners and of advisors to family businesses to identify needs.

Center for Family Enterprise leaders are:

• meeting with family business owners, both individually and in groups, to discuss their needs.
• meeting with family business advisors, both individually and in groups, to identify their needs.
• reviewing programming offered in other centers across the country.
  attending family business conferences to network with other professionals and identify their needs.

In the meantime, the Center for Family Enterprise continues to offer in-depth programming for family businesses.  The Center contributes to training for the many family businesses that are a part of Unigroup.

Check this site again in the next few weeks for new programming in family enterprise.