Passing the Torch: Balancing Growth, Leadership Transitions & Family Legacy in Multi-Generational Businesses
Presented By: CIBC / Fredrikson
Transitioning a family business across generations while ensuring growth and sustainability is no easy feat. Hear insight from the leaders of successful multi-generational businesses who have mastered the art of transitioning leadership—whether keeping it within the family or bringing in outside executives—while maintaining family ownership. We’ll tackle strategies for succession planning, funding growth without sacrificing control, and how to integrate non-family leadership to enhance operations while preserving the family legacy.
Moderator:
Managing Director | Regional Commercial Banking
CIBC
Brock is a Managing Director, and Commercial Banking Group Head of CIBC’s US commercial banking team in Minnesota and has been with CIBC Bank for the last 7 years. Brock and his team have responsibilities that include delivering the bank’s extensive products and capabilities including commercial lending, treasury management/depository services, capital markets, investment banking and M&A advisory to privately held, publicly traded and private equity sponsored middle-market businesses in the Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota markets. Brock has 20+ years of banking experience in the Minnesota market including 13 years at US Bank, and also spent time as a VP at SPS Companies, an employee-owned, plumbing and HVAC distribution company. Brock holds a Bachelor’s degree in Financial Economics from Gustavus Adolphus College.
Panelists:
CEO
SI
Amy Kiefer is passionate about positioning and empowering people to succeed while enabling sustainable organizational growth. She is an accomplished CEO, President, and COO with a diverse background and industry experience that includes consulting, consumer goods, distribution, and manufacturing. She has held leadership roles within privately held, ESOP, private equity, family-owned, and Fortune 500 organizations.
Amy’s special sauce combines insight, transparency, and care with a visionary mindset that optimizes an organization’s foundational strengths and capabilities through discipline, alignment, and scale. Her pillars for partnership are respect, appreciation, and trust.
Her career has taken her from large, multi-national companies to smaller, privately held organizations. She loves a challenge, and thrives within environments of growth, turnaround, or transformation. Her last decade has led her into family-owned organizations who were seeking to bridge the gap to the next generational, transition, professionalize, transform, and/or grow.
Shareholder
Fredrikson
Jessica assists start-up and small business entities to protect their valuable intellectual property assets while achieving their goals through creative corporate and tax planning strategies.
Jessica is a shareholder of Fredrikson and a member of its Business & Tax Planning, Nonprofit & Tax Exempt Organizations, and Internet, Technology & E-Commerce groups. Jessica supports many businesses in the role of general counsel, and deals with issues relating to choice of entity in entity formation, business ownership and disputes and the purchase and sale of businesses.
As the Chair of the Nonprofit and Tax-Exempt Organizations Group at Fredrikson, Jessica also addresses a wide range of issues for nonprofit and tax-exempt entity clients. She assists in all stages of a nonprofit entity’s lifespan, from corporate formation and obtaining tax exempt status, resolving federal and state law compliance issues, to guiding nonprofit clients through winding-up and dissolving the entity. She has specific experience dealing with mergers and acquisitions of nonprofit entities, and counseling nonprofit directors and officers with regard to complying with fiduciary duties in the context of a merger or acquisition of the entity that they serve. She works with clients to structure non-profit/for-profit joint ventures and works regularly with non-profits doing international work.
In her work with the Internet, Technology & E-Commerce Group, Jessica concentrates on copyright protection and registration for a variety of works, including technology-based works such as online works and computer programs, as well as more “traditional” works, such as books, scripts, art and musical arrangements. She provides advice and drafts agreements relating to the transfer of intellectual property assets in transactions and provides advice in negotiating publishing and licensing agreements.
Sales Engineer
Sioux Steel Co.
Max Rysdon is a sales engineer with the Sioux Steel Co. and a fifth-generation family member. He has six years of experience in channel sales and technology manufacturing and is now applying his skills to help develop new products and innovations within the agriculture industry. Max is on a mission to put more food in the hands of those who need it most by equipping farmers, cooperatives and processors to operate more efficiently.
Owner & CEO
Sioux Steel Co.
Scott Rysdon is CEO/President and fourth generation family member of Sioux Steel Company. With 30+ years of experience delivering on the promises of his father, grandfather and great grandfather, he strives to lead the company through goals and visions that are not yet born to be carried out for what will hopefully be another 100+ years.