Providing for the succession of a closely held business can be a rocky proposition. It’s craggier yet when the business is all in the family. To navigate enterprises through such tricky currents is the mission of Carmen Bianchi of Carmal Family Business Associates.
Bianchi will lay out a course to calm what can be troubled waters in a Family and Closely Held Business Forum at the SDSU Entrepreneurial Management Center from 4 to 7 p.m. April 28.
The forum will deal with the issues facing these businesses: succession, transition, estate planning, conflict resolution, sibling rivalry, compensation and family creed.
“Just because you’re a family member doesn’t mean you’re coming into the business,” says Bianchi, who identifies the scenario as one ramification family businesses face by their very nature.
And founding a family business does not mean you and your business are immortal. “It’s not if I’m going to die but when I’m going to die,” Bianchi says is a constant lesson she tries to impart.
Forum speakers know their business; their firms are some of San Diego’s best-known closely held companies: Malin Burnham of Burnham Real Estate, Chuck Buck of Buck Knives, Charles Wax of Waxie Corp., Jennifer Lang of Interface Displays and Matt Reno of Reno Contracting. Keynote speaker is Dirk Junge, chair of Pitcairn Trust of Pittsburgh, whose family has been in business for generations.
Bianchi knows the particular challenges firsthand. A native of South Africa, she was brought up in her family businesses, Bianchi Hotels and Bianchi Investment Corp. She attended both the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Texas, El Paso, where she completed her master’s degree. Conversant in six languages, Bianchi also lives up to her operatic first name by running the Metropolitan Opera regional auditions.
For the Entrepreneurial Management Center, Bianchi says she is initiating a holistic program that includes courses for credit, family retreats, workshops and affinity groups.
Forum sponsors are 1st Pacific Bank, Union Bank of California, Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch, Lockton Insurance, Ernst & Young, San Diego Metropolitan, Small Business Administration and local Economic Development Corps.
For information, call (619) 594-2781 or visit www.sdsu.edu/emc.
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