The Thirteenth Family Wealth Report Awards 2026

Michael has more than two decades of experience serving the family office community.  He currently leads business development for AgilLink, a premier bill pay and general ledger accounting software provider.  In this role, he is focused on expanding AgilLink’s presence within the family office and registered investment advisor (RIA) market.  Prior to joining AgilLink, Michael spent much of his career at Citi Private Bank, where he played a key role in supporting global family office clients.  Notably, in 2016, he co-led the inaugural Family Office Leadership Program, a pioneering initiative that brought together C-suite executives from top family offices worldwide to share insights, collaborate, and elevate industry best practices.  Michael’s career has been defined by his commitment to understanding and supporting the evolving needs of family offices through technology, relationship-building, and thought leadership.

Richard Chen is the Founder of Richard L. Chen PLLC, a law firm that serves the investment advisory community. Richard advises on numerous compliance matters including compliance program development and implementation, mock audits, and SEC examinations. Richard also counsels investment advisers concerning business formation/structuring, contract drafting, mergers, employment matters, succession planning, private fund formation, and operational due diligence. Before launching his practice, Richard spent many years at several preeminent law firms in New York after graduating from Harvard Law School and Harvard College. Please visit his firm’s website and visit his LinkedIn page to learn more about him and his practice.

Michael is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience building successful wealth management firms. Most recently, Michael served as the CEO of Cresset Asset Management, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Cresset offers individuals and families access to a comprehensive suite of family office services, personalized wealth management, investment advisory, planning, access to third-party and direct private investments and advanced technology and reporting solutions. Before joining Cresset, Cole was founder and president of Ascent Private Capital Management of U.S. Bank, an award-winning multi-family office. Prior successes include head of Wells Fargo Family Wealth, now called Abbot Downing, and President of Merrill Lynch Trust.Cole is author of the book More Than Money: A Guide to Sustaining Wealth and Preserving the Family. Since its release, the book has consistently been in the top 100 of Amazon’s best-selling books in Wealth Management and Financial services.

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.

Ronna Gyllenhaal leads the strategic direction of The Family Office at Synovus’ marketing and communications initiatives. A highly skilled marketing and communications expert, Ronna has spent her career helping firms advance corporate growth and innovation by remaining at the forefront of industry trends, technologies, and audience preferences. Her deep knowledge of the family office and wealth management industry and understanding of family dynamics bring a distinctive view into the world of family and wealth.

Mr. Handler is an advanced planning attorney focused on taxation, estate planning, and business planning for executives, family offices, and family businesses. He has authored numerous professional articles and lectured extensively both nationally and internationally at wealth industry, professional and family office educational conferences.

Mr. Handler is a recognized thought leader in the advanced planning and family office marketplaces. He has been named one of the Top 15 Wealth Planners and one of the Top 100 Attorneys in the U.S. numerous times. Tom has won three Lifetime Achievement Awards including the prestigious 2021 PAM award in addition to being named International Wealth Planner of the Year, Private Client Lawyer of the Year, and winner of the Excellence in Estate Planning Award. Private Wealth Magazine called him “one of the most respected tax and estate attorneys in the world.” He is a frequent author, lecturer, and expert commentator.

Brian leads Eton’s strategic initiatives, growth and thought leadership for the firm’s clients. Prior to joining Eton, Brian founded Hughes Growth Strategies, working with firms who serve ultra-high net worth families. He also held leadership positions for two private family offices, Pitcairn, and Threshold Group. With extensive knowledge of wealth management and family office, Brian has been a featured speaker at many programs across the country. He is the Managing Director of the Southeastern Family Office Forum, and  serves on the Advisory Board and Faculty of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute, as well as an Ambassador to R360.

Carol R. Kaufman consults to HNW families, entrepreneurs and trusted advisors.  Her newly released software venture, Pinventory®, coupled with her consulting service, www.homeinventoryacademy.com, focus on the responding to the need for home inventories, ensuring that important possessions and their supporting information are properly catalogued, securely shareable and easily accessible, anywhere and anytime that information is needed.  Her first software product, InvesTier®, was acquired by SunGard in 2002.  An entrepreneur for over 35 years, Ms. Kaufman’s specialties include public speaking, training and software/service-based solutions to organizational problems.  She resides in Hawthorne, NJ and Otis, MA.

In the late 1990s, Ryan initiated his investment technology career at Advent software. Advancing through roles at Advent, he later joined SEI to oversee their outsourced investment management. With a knack for data management and client service, he established Accusource in 2008, specializing in white-glove operations for family offices and RIAs. Addressing the challenge of transferring investment data to GLs, Ryan founded KnowLedger in 2020. Based near Philadelphia, he harmonizes family life with his love for bicycling.

As Senior Director of Sales at Canoe Intelligence, Dennis Mangalindan leads the family office and institutional sales teams. His role is centered on expanding the company’s market share, refining its commercial strategy, and driving growth. Dennis is passionate about helping family offices and institutional managers streamline their alternative investment operations.

Prior to joining Canoe, he led sales and growth initiatives at SEI Family Offices as the VP of Business Development. Dennis earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing from San Jose State University.

In 2010, 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. He has over 25 years of experience in both senior operating roles and client-facing roles in the ultra-high net worth and family office segments of the industry. Previously, he was CEO of Geller Family Office Services, a partner at Convergent Wealth Advisors where he built the firm’s New York office, the regional president of Mellon Private Wealth Management’s New York region, and a financial advisor at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc., where he started in the wealth management industry. Earlier in his career, Mr. McLaughlin served in the Connecticut General Assembly for a decade as a two-term State Representative and a three-term State Senator.

Rebecca is a respected voice in the family enterprise space. She is known for her ability to draw on her more than 30 years of experience across family enterprise governance and family dynamics, generational and business transitions, and investment strategy. Rebecca brings a rare blend of financial fluency and relational insights to her work guiding enterprising families as they navigate the complexities of shared ownership and evolving leadership.

Her career bridges two distinct, yet complementary worlds. Initially, Rebecca worked as an investment professional. As she shifted toward advising decision-makers and family enterprises, Rebecca deepened her focus on relational development and governance. She spent more than a decade at Pitcairn, a family-owned, multi-family office and trust company, where she served as a strategic advisor to multigenerational families and single-family offices navigating generational transitions. Here she also developed a comprehensive curriculum for family learning. Taken together, Rebecca supports families not only in planning for the future, but also in working together effectively to lead their family enterprise.

Rebecca served as a consultant to the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, writing a guidebook for social impact investors. Her insights on family enterprises have been published in Trust & Estates and the FFI Practitioner.

Rebecca holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the University of Maryland. She trained at the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family, is a 21/64 Certified Advisor, a member of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), and a governance domain faculty member of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute.

Neil is a trusted and respected figure in the Canadian financial services industry. With well over 50 years of experience, Neil has served as President of Fiera Private Wealth, as the company’s Executive Vice Chairman and a member of its Board of Directors. He was also President of YMG Private Wealth, Chairman of Nisker Associates and was a driving force behind Brown Baldwin Nisker Ltd for more than 25 years, before it was sold and became HSBC Securities in 1998. He is also well known for being one of three managers of Sir John Templeton’s personal global mutual fund, Best Investments International, having been selected by his mentor in 1990. Active in philanthropy, he’s acted as Co-Chair of the UJA Federation of Greater Toronto Annual Campaign, Co-Chair of the Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care Campaign, Vice-Chair of Mount Sinai Hospital Foundation and Chair of its Investment Committee, Chair of the Jewish Foundation of Greater Toronto and Chair of its Investment Committee.

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.

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.

The Rudin Group founder April Rudin is a widely acknowledged top marketing strategist for the financial-services and wealth-management sectors. Her firm designs bespoke marketing campaigns for leading wealth-management firms, fintechs, and family offices; campaigns that strengthen brand value and drive client acquisition. Recognized as an IBM “influencer,” she is a regularly-featured source of expertise, contributes to Capgemini’s World Wealth Report, produces the CFA Institute’s annual U.S. outlook, and often speaks about wealth, next-gen, and fintech. She’s been published extensively and judges the Family Wealth Report’s annual Wealth Management Industry Awards and is a member of their advisory board. Her two sons say she has always been an “influencer”.

Susan R. Schoenfeld, JD, LL.M. (Taxation), CPA, MBA, is CEO and founder of Wealth Legacy Advisors LLC. She is an award-winning Thought Leader to families of wealth, and Public Speaker to the financial services industry who serve them -- or want to! -- on the human issues that keep families of wealth up at night: Legacy, Next Generation, Stewardship, Governance, Leadership Succession, and Philanthropy. Based in NYC, she is a “recovering” Attorney and CPA, and “one of the few women on the national speaking circuit who is guiding financial services firms and their clients to connect with the human side of the client relationship.” - Family Wealth Report Awards 2020. Susan’s passion is helping families (and their provider organizations) with the tools to take them to their full potential. For more, visit
SusanSchoenfeld.com and WLALLC.com.

Rusdi oversaw a division of Client Services and lead both the Financial Planning Program and the Operations Team at Market Street Trust., working closely with all specialists to deliver full financial plans to clients. Prior to joining Market Street, Sumner was Vice President and Managing Director of Tompkins Financial Advisors, while serving on the Tompkins Trust Company’s leadership team and as an Innovation Ambassador. Sumner received a B.A. from Cortland State University summa cum laude in Business Economics and Communications. She also holds a dual-degree MBA with distinction from Cornell University’s Samuel Curtis Johnson School of Management and the Smith School of Business, Queen’s University (Ontario, CA).

Edward is the Founder and CEO of Presage Global, an intelligence-powered risk and business advisory firm. Presage is a trusted partner to c-suites and boards, family offices, and investors. Edward is a family office insider and a leading family office researcher, advisor, and author.  He is also a risk and threat management specialist, working with families to reduce their cyber, physical, financial, operational, and reputational risk profiles.

Edward is a member of the Advisory Board and co-heads the Family Office Initiative at the UHNW Institute, a think tank organized to support family offices and UHNW individuals by promoting best practices, professional development, and positive change in the family office and family wealth field. He also co-authored the book, The Family Office: A Comprehensive Guide for Advisers, Practitioners, and Students.

Prior to founding Presage Global, Edward held leading family office roles at Dentons, Credit Suisse, Citibank, and Boston Private. He joined Credit Suisse from Booz Allen Hamilton and previously was a research assistant at The Kennan Institute and lectured as an Adjunct Professor at the Henley-Putnam School of Strategic Security. Edward began his career in the public sector, working for the federal government in the United States and abroad.

Edward serves as the Senior Advisor to the President of The Kyiv School of Economics in Ukraine and founded "After Service", a Ukrainian NGO focused on reducing veteran suicide and supporting Ukrainian veterans in civilian life. He is a board member at the Defense Intelligence Memorial Foundation (DIMF), providing full scholarships to the families of Defense Intelligence officers killed in the line of duty, and an advisory board member for Americas Warrior Partnership (AWP), a nonprofit focused on reducing veteran suicide.

He earned his MBA from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and a BS in Human Biology from Michigan State University.

Michael Zeuner has been serving wealthy families for more than two decades and currently serves as one of three managing partners at WE. Michael is a nationally recognized leader in the family office industry and has dedicated his professional career to empowering financially successful families to manage their wealth with confidence, competence and success.

Michael is a co-founder and a board member of the Ultra High Net Worth Institute; a nonprofit think tank and learning exchange. In addition, Michael is a co-founder and a board member of the Institute for the Fiduciary Standard and served on board and as an independent director at Wren Investment Office, a UK-based multi-family office from it’s founding in July, 2026 until September of 2024 and a member firm of the global alliance formed by WE, Wren and MdF. Michael was honored to receive the 2025 Outstanding Individual (MFO) award from the Family Wealth Report awards, a testament to his role not only at WE, but also in the ultra-high net worth industry.

Since 2024, Michael has been hosting the Wealth Enterprise Briefing a regular podcast on topics of interest to investors and wealthy families.

Prior to his role at WE Family Offices he served as senior executive partner of GenSpring Family Offices. In this capacity, he had responsibility for the leadership and management of GenSpring’s network of 10 family offices in the United States, that firm’s key advisory practices, and its delivery of a high-quality client experience. In addition, he was a member of the firm’s Operating Committee. Before joining GenSpring, Michael was managing director and global head of Wealth Solutions at JP Morgan Private Bank. As a member of the executive team, he had responsibility for strategic planning, branding, marketing, and specialized advisory services (family governance, philanthropy, and fine art wealth management) for the worldwide private bank.

A management consultant by training, Michael led projects in the financial services area for both Andersen Consulting (now Accenture) and Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He joined Chase Manhattan in 1995 as vice president at the investment bank and moved to the private bank in 1997 to head up strategy and marketing worldwide. JP Morgan and Chase merged in January 2002.

Michael graduated from Brandeis University, (B.A.) and earned an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.