Carmen Bianchi

Carmen Bianchi has been a Family Business Consultant since 1991. She is the founder and director of the EMC Business Forum at San Diego State University, servicing the growth needs of family and closely held businesses. She was the founder of the University of Texas at El Paso Family Business Forum and was the executive director of the Forum. Ms. Bianchi has relocated to the San Diego area and is the founder and a principal of Carmen Bianchi & Associates, a consulting firm in Family Business. She currently teaches in the College of Business at SDSU in the MBA program a class on Family Business Management.

As a family business consultant, Ms. Bianchi has served as a facilitator for family business retreats, facilitator for conflict resolution and an advisor on a variety of strategic business issues. Ms. Bianchi is also an expert in family systems and the relationship between family, business ownership and the professional roles within a family firm.

Ms. Bianchi received national recognition and was elected to be the President 2007-2009 of the Family Firm Institute, the premier organization in the U.S. for professionals specializing in family business and wealth management. She was awarded fellowship status by The Family Firm Institute in recognition of outstanding achievements and contributions to the field of family business advising.

Ms. Bianchi has been invited by numerous national and international organizations to speak on family business issues. She has taught and put on a number of workshops on family business; June 2008 in Santiago Chile, March 2007 in India at the University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad and the Graduate School of Management in Coimbatore, India, the American University of Beirut where she did a 2 day seminar on family business issues and case studies in May 2006 and in October 2006 she presented a 2 day seminar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Carmen was invited to South Africa to speak to family businesses involved in agriculture. She worked with numerous South African families on spouse and family issues.

In September 1998, Ms. Bianchi was invited to start a family business forum at the University of Jyvaskyla, Finland where she worked with MBA students on family business issues. At the United States Association for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (USASBE) Conference in February 2000, Carmen Bianchi& Associates was awarded the “Best Workshop Award in Family Business”. In January 2004, Ms. Bianchi was invited by The Business Journal in Fresno to be the keynote speaker at the Annual California Family Business Awards Luncheon.

Ms. Bianchi was born in South Africa where she was brought up in her family’s businesses, Bianchi Hotels, Inc. and Bianchi Investment Corp. She was a financial comptroller of South African Breweries Hotel Division. She speaks six languages, having completed her high school in Florence, Italy and attending the Sorbonne University in Paris. She received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Texas, El Paso in Business Administration where she also completed her Masters Degree.

When not consulting to family business, Carmen spends as much time as she can with her family especially the grandchildren. Or she can be found playing tennis or bridge, hiking, bicycling, skiing, running the Metropolitan Opera Regional Auditions, and visiting art galleries and theatre. She serves on several charitable boards in her community.

References available by request.

Associates

As President of Carmen Bianchi Family Business Associates, Carmen takes the lead in finding a way to fulfill your needs. To provide the skills needed for this dynamic, multi-dimensional practice, Carmen calls upon a wide network of specialists and associates, each of whom brings to the table expertise and skills that will be of value to your organization.

Sanford Ehrlich, Ph. D., has had extensive experience in leading and facilitating business development, organization design, and change management projects for emerging growth and well-established firms. Recent projects have included: facilitation of strategic, product planning and business plan development sessions; leadership assessment and coaching; leading a process improvement team; design, distribution, and analysis of employee surveys on strategic, structural and behavioral issues. Sandy’s consulting practice has focused on executing projects dedicated to achieving demonstrable changes and results, not just production of written reports or plans. Sandy was recently named one of the top professors of Entrepreneurship in the United States by Fortune Magazine.

Sheldon Derezin, CPA,CFP, With more than 20 years of professional experience from providing litigation support services, serving as the Chief Financial Officer for Waxie Sanitary Supply and sitting on the board of directors for several area non-profits including the San Diego Food Bank, Sheldon brings a wealth of financial services knowledge to Carmen Bianchi Family Business Associates.

Judi Spear, is the principal consultant and president of The Spear Group, Inc., a communication consulting form, consulting with for-profit and not-for-profit clients in manufacturing, food, automotive services, technology, education, health and human services. In addition to consulting, Judi serves as an executive coach, facilitator, and trainer. Annually, more than 2,500 people come through her workshops and seminars designed for busienss leaders and administrators. Topics include strategic communication, leadership, motivation, personal growth and development, and corporate culture.

Laurent Roux has some 30 years of experience working with families and family offices worldwide. Activities range from strategic wealth management – family legacy and stewardship, family dynamics and organization, family office construction and coordination, and consulting, to international asset management, asset allocation, portfolio management, manager selection, performance reviews, mutual fund administration and global custody. He was a Director and Managing Director at Pictet & Cie, Private Bankers, Geneva, Switzerland and a number of its international affiliates during his 25 years at his family’s firm. In 2005 he returned to the US and founded Gallatin Wealth Management, a Wyoming LLC. The firm is a wealth management advisory and consultancy whose objective is to act as the trusted advisor, personne de confiance, to a limited number of families, family offices and mfo’s. Laurent holds a JD degree from California Western School of Law in San Diego (1980), received a BA from the Univ of Colorado with majors in History and Political Science in 1976, and attended the Graduate Institute of International Studies Masters program in Geneva. He was a member of the Cal Western International Law Journal, received several Dean’s Awards and Advocacy Honors Board Awards. He joined Pictet in 1980, worked in Geneva and London, established and headed Pictet’s Asian presence in Hong Kong in 1986, worked throughout the region nine years, headed the Group’s EU operations in Luxembourg, and returned to Geneva in 1998. His responsibilities there included strategic group projects, single and multi-family office services, coordination of Pictet’s international offices, and more. Laurent currently is a board member of the Family Firm Institute, advisory board member of the East West Institute – a global conflict prevention think and do tank, and the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs. He has spoken at numerous forums in Asia, Europe and the US, and was an advisor/participant in the Far Eastern Economic Review ‘Where To Put Your Money’ Quarterly’s in Asia. He has written several articles on private banking, family wealth management and the concept/role of personnes de confiances.