Family Wealth Report Awards 2015

Bruce is a chartered accountant with over 37 years financial services experience, previously a partner in PwC, latterly as Global leader of their Wealth Management practice and the key driver of their bi-annual Wealth Management Report. Bruce is now CEO of Weatherill Consulting providing advice on client centricity and wider strategic matters to wealth managers. He is the author of The Value of Trust: the quest by Wealth Managers for Trusted Advisor status and a number of other thought leadership reports. Bruce is chairman of ClearView Financial Media and a non-executive of a number of companies including Fidelity Holdings UK, The Wisdom Council, ComPeer, JDX Consulting and Ten Group.

James “Jamie” McLaughlin founded J. H. McLaughlin & Co., LLC, a management consulting firm focused on strategy and practice management for wealth management and investment advisory firms, private banks, trust companies, single and multi-family offices, in 2010.  He is a co-founder of The UHNW Institute, an independent “think tank” directed at the needs of ultra-high-net-worth families and their advisors.  Previously, he was CEO of Geller Family Office Services, a partner at Convergent Wealth Advisors, the regional president of Mellon Private Wealth Management’s New York region, and a financial advisor at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc.

Jane Swan joined Sheffield Haworth in 2013 and is head of the wealth management practice for the Americas. Previously, she served as global co-head of wealth management at Korn Ferry International. Earlier in her career, Jane was a member of the global financial services practice at Heidrick & Struggles.

Jane is recognized as a leader in talent management within the wealth management sector where she has built leadership teams and worked on cross border assignments for global clients including the private client arms of universal and regional banks, private banks, retail brokerage firms, RIAs, multi-family offices, trust companies, and insurance and investment companies.

Jon Carroll is an managing director in the Ernst & Young US Americas Family Office Advisory practice. His primary focus is advising family members, family business owners, trustees, and family office executives on how to grow and govern their single-family office. Jon has extensive experience advising families on the set-up and structure of their family office, strategic planning and implementation, leading practices, business and operational risk assess¬ment, and family office systems and technology search, selection, implementation and integration. Jon has over 26 years experience serving UHNW families, including seven years working in a family office as chief operating officer. Before joining Ernst & Young, Jon was president and CEO of Family Office Metrics.

Mr. Reilly is an investment and strategy consultant to family offices and the host of the Private Capital Podcast. He was the co-founder and founding president of the Family Office Association, a global forum for single-family offices that is based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Previously Mr. Reilly helped to start a single-family office and foundation in New York where he was an investment manager for five years. He was an energy specialist focused on options and futures trading at Credit Agricole Indosuez in New York prior to that and started his career at Salomon Smith Barney. Mr. Reilly has spoken on family office issues at many conferences and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg, and currently does a monthly interview series with notables in the family office world for Family Wealth Report, where he is on the global editorial board.

Judy Green, Ph.D., is the president of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), a worldwide as­sociation of individuals and organizations whose mission is to be the most influential global network of thought-leaders in the field of family enterprise. FFI provides research-based learning and relevant tools for advisors and consultants, academics and family enterprise members.

A frequent commentator on the family enterprise field, she is co-author of Family Enterprise: Understanding Families in Business and Families of Wealth, a member of the research applied board for Family Business Review and the academic advisory board of the Instituto de la Empresa Familiar in Spain. She is a recipient of the FFI Barbara Hollander Award and the FFI International Award.

Kimberly A. Cassford, co-founder of Cassford Management, has been providing services for high net worth families and individuals for nearly 20 years. She is a specialist in residential staffing and structuring, organization and project management.

Kim’s firm, Cassford Management is an award winning residential staffing firm which specializes in recruitment of well-qualified and trustworthy private service professionals for discerning families. Since its founding in 2002 it has successfully worked with over 1,000 families, advisors and family offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Middle East.

Mary Duke is an internationally recognized advisor to families navigating the complexities of substantial wealth. Her work is anchored in the facilitation of family meetings, mentoring, education and strategic planning and governance for family businesses, their private trust companies and family offices. She is known for her deep expertise in generational transition in family enterprises and the impact of trusts on families. An attorney trained in family systems and dispute resolution, she has an excellent track record helping family members collaborate more effectively. Previously, Mary headed two private family offices, spearheaded a leading bank’s award-winning global family wealth platform, and has served tours of duty in both private client law and business consulting.

Michael D. Whitty concentrates his practice in estate planning, taxation, and estate and trust administration. Specifically, he advises individuals and fiduciaries in the design and drafting of estate plans, wills, trusts, lifetime gifts, premarital agreements, and other estate planning documents. Michael has extensive experience with various types of trusts, family limited partnerships, corporate recapitalizations, shareholders’ and redemption agreements, private annuities, installment sales, intra-trust sales and other transactions, self-canceling installment notes, and net gifts.

Leading results-driven strategic planning for growth-focused organizations, Patti operates two distinct yet compatible consultancies. As Founder and President of Boyle Consulting Group, she applies her expertise in developing brand positioning, mission/vision/values and digital marketing to private equity-owned businesses, including those in WealthTech and FinTech.  Following an early career in global marketing agencies, such as JWT and FCB, Patti led SEI Investments’ UK-based Marketing Team for Private Banking. Patti is also CEO of an early-stage venture, Sapience Leadership, affiliated with The University of Pennsylvania.  In this role, Patti works with a team of inspiring educational leaders in the areas of Educational Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Executive Coaching.  Applying business principles and leadership experience to Education brings a unique balance to Patti’s work and has resulted in dynamic growth for both of her client communities. She has been active with the FWR Awards, since its inception in 2013.

Sigrid Seibold is advisory lead partner for one of the firms largest clients. She has specialized on technology topics and has been working for the past 25 years with financial institutions across the world. Prior to KPMG, Sigrid was the global digital lead for Accenture’s capital markets clients, focusing on emerging technologies and FinTech. Moving from Germany to Singapore in 2010, Sigrid assumed responsibility for Accenture’s ASEAN capital markets activities with a special focus on wealth management. Her previous experience includes a decade in IBM’s consulting division across capital markets topics and working for Deutsche Bank as FX-trader.

In a career spanning over three decades, Steve Prostano has distinguished himself as an innovator and thought leader in the wealth management and global financial services industries. Steve has served as CEO of Silver Bridge, a Global Partner of Amvescap, President of Atlantic Trust and Chase Global Asset Management, and an EVP of the Private Clients Group of FleetBoston Financial. He has also held senior positions with Mellon Bank and KPMG. Most recently at Bank of the West, Steve was a member of the Bank’s Senior Management Committee and the Head of Family Wealth Advisors - the first global MFO in the US. Steve is also a CPA and attorney with an LL.M. in Taxation.

Steve Crosby focuses on helping PwC clients address challenges to their success across a broad spectrum of management consulting including strategy, operations, risk and regulatory compliance as well as technology solutions, data and analytics.

He is also one of the principal authors of PwC thought leadership including the PwC Global Private Banking/ Wealth Manage­ment Survey and Wealth Management Infrastructure Survey and has been featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal on key industry topics. Steve’s spe­cializations include: wealth management, private banking, family office, trust and brokerage, as well as large-scale securities processing, advanced technology, opera­tions, service provisioning and deliver. He is a member of the Global Custodian Securities Delivery Services hall of fame.

Steven L. Cantor is CEO of The Cantor Group, a Miami-based boutique law firm focused exclusively on the representa­tion of UHNW international private clients and families, from Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and Canada in the areas of international tax and estate planning.

For over 25 years, Steven has lectured and written extensively on international tax and estate planning as well as structuring foreign investment in U.S. real estate. He is a member of various organizations, including the Florida, District of Columbia and New York Bars, the American Bar Association and the International Bar Association. He is also a member of TIGER 21, the premier peer-to-peer learning network for HNW investors.

Bill has spent his career advising founders, wealth creators, closely held business owners, and family offices across a wide range of wealth management disciplines, including investment management, taxation, estate planning, philanthropy, and wealth education. He joined SVB from Citigroup, where he was a managing director and head of the Family Office Group for Citi Private Bank. Before joining Citigroup, Bill was a managing director and head of the Ultra-High-Net-Worth (UHNW) and Family Office business for Credit Suisse.

Bill began his career in “Big Four” public accounting, where he spent a decade providing tax and related planning advice to clients. He left public accounting to run the family office of one of his clients, a Hong Kong–based family with 40 employees and operations in Hong Kong, San Francisco, and Vancouver. Bill was also a founding member of myCFO, an integrated wealth management and technology firm started by several well-known Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. Shortly before the sale of myCFO to Harris Bank, Bill joined Merrill Lynch’s Private Banking and Investment Group and oversaw an integrated investment advisory practice for UHNW families and family offices ranging in net worth from $25 million to $2 billion. Bill earned a master’s degree in accounting from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of California, Irvine.

A frequent author on wealthy families’ issues, Bill co-wrote “The Family Office: A Comprehensive Guide for Advisers, Practitioners, and Students,” published by Columbia University Press. He’s been quoted extensively in financial publications and was named one of Family Capital’s 100 Influencers – Consultants. In addition, he’s a lecturer in the Master’s in Wealth Management program at Columbia University School of Professional Studies, the chair of the advisory board for the Stanford University Global Family Office Initiative, and a co-founder of the UHNW Institute, an independent nonprofit that provides thought leadership and content helpful to families, family offices, and professionals.

Daniel Goldstein has been advising UHNW families, their entities and private trusts on direct deals, liquid investments, business strategy, structuring, real estate, family dynamics and philanthropy since 1994. His experience spans several continents, many jurisdictions and multiple languages in his roles as CEO, CIO and board director.  For 15 years he was director of a European global SFO. Previously, he was the investment analyst on a two-person team managing a $1.25 billion portfolio for a US family foundation.  Daniel is a frequent speaker at family office conferences and has presented in, chaired, and moderated over 100 events on five continents.

Dan Rauchle has more than 25 years in executive positions across the industry; experience which has furnished him with broad and deep understanding of economic and investment strategy, portfolio construction, investment risk management, private investment structures and alternative investments. In addition to advising clients on portfolio strategy and risk, Dan has been instrumental in developing proprietary risk assessment practices, SEC- registered hedge funds and over a decade of managing hedge funds.

Prior to joining Ascent, Dan was President of Wells Fargo Alternative Asset Management, and founder and head of Wells Fargo’s RiskOptics investment risk assessment practice.

David Albright serves as the head of client development for the Americas, EMEA and APAC regions of Northern Trust’s global family and private investment offices group. He is also a member of its executive leadership team and the business operating group. Dave oversees his group’s client development functions. Prior to assuming his current role, Dave covered the northeast region and before that the group’s interests in the southeast region of the US. Dave joined Northern Trust in 1998 as a client administrator in the family office client servicing division. His previous experience included escrow administration and trust indenture management at JP Morgan (formerly American National Bank).

Don Heberle is executive director at BNY Mellon with responsibility for wealth strategy and international wealth management. He oversees the organization’s international wealth management business, its family wealth advisory and wealth and estate strategist groups, and client service delivery strategy. Don joined the firm in 1997 to manage family office client portfolios, and subsequently assumed full management responsibility for the family office business. He later developed the firm’s tax-managed equity investment process, over which he still has oversight.

Subsequently, he served as director of investment strategy for Mellon’s private wealth management group, with responsibility for managing the analysis and development of investment ideas, strategic asset allocation and product research.

As deputy chair, RBC Wealth Management, and vice chair, Royal Trust Corporation, Gay Mitchell is responsible for building RBC’s market profile as well as supporting Canada’s top enterprises and enterprising families coast to coast. Her responsibilities include providing guidance, solutions and integration to key Canadian clients across business strategy, family strategy and intergenerational wealth transition planning.

Gay’s previous roles at RBC covered a wide variety of leadership responsibilities including executive vice president - products, personal & commercial banking, and executive vice president - personal financial services and executive vice president (Ontario). She moved into these roles following her assignment as head of human resources, where she was responsible for RBC’s human resource function worldwide.

Lisa leads a team of highly experienced and credentialed professionals who provide customized financial, business transition and wealth transfer planning advice. Lisa has advised UHNW individuals and multi-generational families for more than 30 years.   She has been quoted in various media regarding tax and estate planning topics including Bloomberg TV, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Prior to joining Comerica, Lisa spent over 20 years at Wells Fargo and predecessor banks building and leading wealth planning groups,  Lisa also spent 11 years at Arthur Andersen in Washington, D.C.  She is a CPA (not practicing), Personal Financial Specialist (PFS) and a CFP® professional. As a member of the American Institute of CPAs, Lisa has served on several committees and is currently chair of the Advanced Estate Planning Conference committee.

Loraine Tsavaris has over 40 years of client and management experience in the wealth management industry. She retired from Rockefeller & Co. in 2017, having served as senior client advisor and managing director working with HNW individuals, families and family offices since 2008. Prior to joining Rockefeller,  Loraine was at US Trust for 37 years, where she served across a range of senior-level positions, and had a critical role in growing the company's various high wealth businesses. In her last position, Loraine was managing director and principal of US Trust's multi-family office group, where she advised the company's wealthiest clients and developed the firm's UHNW worth business.  Loraine sits on the Board of Directors of Rockefeller Trust Company, N.A

Lynn Halpern Lederman oversees Bessemer Trust’s fiduciary officers and legacy planners in the northeast region, as well as the firm’s estate administration group. She also works closely with Bessemer clients and their advisors to develop wealth transfer planning strategies.

Prior to joining Bessemer in 2007, Lynn was a member of the Estate Planning Department at U.S. Trust for nearly 8 years. Before that, she was a trusts and estates attorney with Pitney, Hardin, Kipp & Szuch (now Day Pitney) and clerked for a justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Having joined WE Family Offices as one of its three managing partners in 2013, Michael Zeuner oversees the firm’s US business. A management consultant by training, Michael has considerable experience as a leader in the wealth management industry. This included a leadership position at GenSpring Family Offices, where he was a member of the firm’s operating committee and senior executive partner responsible for the firm’s local family offices across the US. Before this he was managing director and global head of wealth solutions at JP Morgan Private Bank, having been head of strategy and marketing worldwide at Chase Manhattan Private Bank prior to its merger with JP Morgan in 2002. Michael is also a board member and co-founder of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard.

Peter E Ruhlin is a partner and co-founder of FallLine Strategic Advisors, a management consulting firm providing strategic, trans- action and technology/operational advisory services to principals, intermediaries, service providers and investors exclusively in the wealth management industry. Peter’s responsibilities at FallLine include: working with clients on business strategy and business model evaluation; business growth and development; management structure; roles and responsibilities; governance, capital structure and financing needs; management succession planning/transitions; and compliance and regulatory implementation.

Peter was previously the president and chief operating officer and a co-founder of Samoset Capital Group, and head of the US capital markets practice at Linklaters.

Rebecca guides family enterprises as they navigate the complexities of intergenerational ownership and planning for transitions. With the benefit of a systems perspective, she helps family enterprises address the need for evolving governance while enhancing leadership and collaboration skills among family members. This work enables families to embrace the gifts and talents of all family members to help ensure a sustainable enterprise. A key part of her focus is preparing next generation family members to take on new roles. Prior to joining Relative Solutions, Rebecca spent over 15 years as a business leader working in and with family offices, advising families on governance, communication, and family learning. She also wrote a guidebook for social impact investors as part of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania. Rebecca enjoys contributing to industry publications and speaking at conferences. Her focus is exploring practical approaches to helping enterprising families address the challenges that arise from sharing financial resources. Rebecca earned her BA from the University of Pennsylvania and her MBA from the University of Maryland. She trained at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family in Washington, DC, is a 21/64 Certified Advisor, and a member of the Family Firm Institute (FFI).

Scott Baker is president of Perspecta Trust, a New Hampshire-chartered non-depository trust company that provides bespoke trust, investment, and business services for wealthy families. Perspecta develops tailored guidance for its clients in the areas of wealth transfer planning, estate structuring, philanthropy, and investment portfolio construction and management.

Utilizing New Hampshire’s status as the nation’s leading trust jurisdiction, Perspecta also helps families construct trusts and migrate wealth to the state to take advantage of its progressive and flexible trust laws. As an independent trust company, Perspecta is able to provide the extensive menu of services offered by large firms with the specialized discipline and attentiveness of a dedicated family office.

Prior to assuming the role of president and ceo of the AASCB in March 2015 Tom Robinson was managing director of the CFA Institute with responsibility for the Americas, its largest region. Before this he was a faculty member at the University of Miami, serving as director of the master of professional accounting and personal financial planning programs while also working
as managing director of a private wealth investment advisory firm. Prior to working in academia, Tom worked in public accounting, performing tax and financial planning services. He has authored and co-authored many books, including Tools and Techniques of Investment Planning and The New Wealth Management: The Financial Advisors Guide to Managing and Investing Client Assets.