Family Business/Business Family

In this episode, we’re joined by Nikolette Huberman Jacob and her brother Lukas Huberman, second-generation leaders of BLT Enterprises, a Southern California business that began with a single trash truck and blossomed into a real estate firm with tenants like Amazon, FedEx, Frito-Lay and PepsiCo. We also sit down with Kyle York, tech entrepreneur and co-founder of York IE, to discuss how his famil...

This episode features part 1 of our interview with Bryce Lundberg, Emily Griffin and Craig Stevenson of Lundberg Family Farms. They discuss how family involvement has evolved and why hiring a non-family CEO was key to future growth. We also continue our conversation with Tauck CEO Jennifer Tombaugh and Chairman Dan Mahar as they look ahead to the travel company’s second century. Plus, Brian Birdy...

This episode features interviews with Tauck Chairman Dan Mahar and CEO Jennifer Tombaugh, who discuss their careers and the keys to Tauck’s 100 years of success as a family-owned business. Also, Family Business Contributing Editor Dennis Jaffe talks embracing your family’s evolution and NIX Companies President & CEO Matthew Nix discusses its recent, uniquely structured acquisition of a fellow...

In this episode, Tony Brausen, a veteran former executive and current board director for several major companies (including 2025 Private Company Board of Year honoree Adolfson & Peterson Construction), discusses how family businesses can marry career development and succession planning — and how the board can help. This episode also features an interview with Brian Birdy, leader of third-gener...

In this episode, brothers Tom Cingari Jr. and John Cingari of Cingari Family Markets talk about the fourth generation’s efforts to spearhead a major rebranding of the 82-year-old family business that is aimed at reaching the modern customer while honoring their family’s legacy. This episode also features part 2 of our conversation with Brandi Harleaux, second-generation CEO of South Post Oak Recyc...

In this episode, we sit down with John Darby and Dan Doyle of the Beach Company, a Charleston, S.C.-based residential and commercial real estate company celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Along with that milestone, the company has announced a leadership change: Dan Doyle is taking over the role of president from John Darby, who held the position for 33 years. Doyle is the first non-family...

In this episode, we talk with Matthew Nix, president & CEO of 5th-generation NIX Companies, which started as a blacksmith shop in Indiana in the late 1800s and has since grown into a family holding company focused on service oriented businesses, real-estate, and other supporting services. Much of that expansion has taken place within the past two decades, under the guidance of the current gene...

In the latest episode of the Family Business/Business Family podcast, we sit down with Marshall Klein, president of 100-year-old Klein’s Family Markets, based in Maryland. He discusses the sudden death of his father in a 2019 auto accident, which necessitated Marshall immediately stepping into the president role and trying to keep the family business together while attempting to process his grief....

In this episode, we sit down with David Savir, co-founder and chief executive officer of Element Pointe Family Office, to discuss key considerations in preparing for a family business sale. David also discusses how families can remain engaged in legacy building after a liquidity event. We also chat with Ron Attman, CEO of Maryland-based Acme Paper & Supply Company, which celebrates its 80th an...

In this episode, Peter Blommer, former chairman & CEO of the Blommer Chocolate Company, discusses the origins of the business, as well as how he came to be involved in it. He also tells the amazing story of how the company narrowly avoided a takeover by a massive multinational food corporation by making an appeal from one family-owned enterprise to another.  We also chat with Andrew...

In the latest episode of the Family Business/Business Family podcast, Brandi Harleaux, second-generation CEO of South Post Oak Recycling Center in Houston, Texas, discusses her journey from Disney executive to CEO of her family’s recycling business — or, as she likes to say, “from pixie dust to real dust.” We also sit down with Ashley Weinaug, director of marketing for Wekiva Island in Longwood, F...

In this episode, we sit down with Torri Hawley, a wealth education expert and seventh-generation member of the Vollrath Company, and Peter Begalla, conference chair at MLR Media and founder of JPB Consulting Group. Together, they discuss how family businesses can better solicit honest, actionable feedback from their shareholders. (For more from Hawley and Begalla on this topic, check out their rec...

In this episode of the Family Business/Business Family podcast, Bill Weinaug, president of Wekiva Island — a family-owned, environmentally friendly vacation destination in Longwood, Florida — talks about the resort’s beginnings and why leaving a sustainable legacy requires learning to let go. Also, Joanna Bergey Shisler, dealer principal at Bergey’s — a 5th-generation, family-owned auto, truck and...

Brandon Adkins’ family legacy is deeply tied to the karting industry. When his father died in 2017, he was faced with the difficult decision of whether to take over the family business, Adkins Speed Center . It wasn’t an easy road, but today Brandon and his husband, Jamie Wince, run the karting track, which focuses on spreading a message of positivity and inclusivity. In this episode, they discuss...

In this episode, Mayumi Allison, CEO and second generation owner of Hosa Technology Inc., stops by to talk about how she learned to be a leader in the family business her father founded. And, building on that theme, Aaron Chin, CEO and second generation owner of Organika Health Products, discusses innovating as a NextGen in the company his father founded. Also in this episode, contributing editor...

In this episode, we’re talking about the challenges and emotions surrounding generational transitions. Mike Crotty, fourth-generation president of one of America’s oldest family-owned and -operated uniform rental and facility services companies, Spirit Services, recounts taking over the company and making the difficult decision to fire his grandfather. Duane Bergey, the chief relationship officer...

In this episode, Katy Wilder Schaaf talks balancing her role as vice chair of the board of directors for her family business, E. Ritter & Company, with her career as a licensed clinical psychologist. She also talks about how the company utilized governance to reengage shareholders after a family rift. Then, Preston Root, fourth-generation steward of Root Glass Co., explains how a family consti...

We're fresh off our Transitions Fall 2024 conference and talking — you guessed it — generational transitions. In this episode, Accurate Box Company G3 President and CEO Lisa Hirsh; her husband, Executive Vice President Sales and Marketing Mark Schlossman; and their daughter, Director of Sales and Marketing Samara Ronkowitz, discuss how the company is planning for the transition to G4. Also, M...

In this episode of Family Business/Business Family, Lisa Daniel, Education Chair of the Joseph Lodge Family Council, explains how to make family governance work — and why it’s worth the effort. Also, Eric Johnson, partner and U.S. Family Office Tax Leader at Deloitte, discusses some of the recent trends they’ve seen in the growth of the single family office space. And Bill Rock, CEO of MLR Me...

In this episode of Family Business/Business Family, Karen Norheim, president and CEO of American Crane and Equipment Corporation, discusses how her family business got started somewhat by accident. Also, sisters Chelsea and Callie Sher, whose mother began building a family business in 2002 when she purchased the now 90-year-old brand Evanger’s Dog & Cat Food Company, explain how the family wor...

In this episode of Family Business/Business Family, speaker, author and entrepreneur Octavian Pilati discusses the crisis that cost his family their business and their harmony. He describes the lessons he took from the experience and is now trying to pass along to other family business owners. Also, Linda Fonner, CFO of family-owned and -operated Edmund Optics, director of HashWatt Inc. and m...

In our inaugural episode of Family Business/Business Family, we sit down with Karla Trotman, president and chief executive officer of Electro Soft Inc., the nation's largest Black-owned electronics manufacturing and engineering firm. We discuss how she and her family handled her tricky transition to the top spot, which included the difficult decision to buy out her siblings. We also talk about her...