Family Business Center

The Family Business Breakfast Series is our flagship program, averaging about 190 family members in attendance. This event is only open to members of family businesses and is a safe place to tackle unique issues, engage with other families and find your path forward. The Series meets Thursday mornings from 7:30-9:30 a.m. on the St. Paul campus on these dates:

• September 11, 2025: Leadership Communication that Connects
• October 23, 2025: Preparing Future Owners
• December 4, 2025: Live Case Study: Real-Time Decisions for a Family in Transition
• January 22, 2026: How You Show Up: Strengthening Your Role in Family Business
• February 26, 2026: Integrating Outsiders into the Family Business
• April 9, 2026: What Retired CEOs Wish They Knew Sooner
• May 7, 2026: Finding Common Ground in Family Business Disagreements

A season membership remains at $1,750, granting access for all family members to all Breakfast Series events, a $300 discount per peer group, discounts to Executive Education and an Executive MBA, and invitations to the next generation event and a women's leadership event. You can register your family here.

For families that are not members, the cost is $300 per family, per Breakfast Series event. First-time families are invited to join us at no cost.

Thanks to the generosity of a donor, the center can provide financial assistance to smaller family businesses who may not be able to afford the full cost of a season membership. There's a short application to fill out.

Questions? Contact Executive Director Jon Keimig, jon.keimig@stthomas.edu or 651-962-4560.

Center members have access to these additional events, connecting family businesses with programming beyond the Breakfast Series, to create meaningful learning and relationships in a new way.

• NextGen Gathering
  4-6 p.m. Nov. 11, 2025
  Featuring Lindsey Hickey, CEO of Simek's
• Women's Legacy Event
  Spring 2026

Join a group of peers who share similar family business roles to participate in confidential discussions about critical family and business issues, and help each other to navigate and overcome challenges. The center currently has six groups, including one for executives, two for women and three for next generation members. Groups meet 7-10 times a year, up to three hours each time. The annual cost is $950 per person for members, and $1250 for nonmembers. To ensure that you and your preferred peer group will be a good fit, you must submit an application. For details, please contact us at familybusiness@stthomas.edu.

Submit an application

The Advisor Engagement Luncheon allows family business advisors like bankers, accountants, financial planners, attorneys, psychologists and coaches to learn together about topics that will help them better serve their family business clients and build their professional networks. Advisors can attend individually at $60 each or firms can become a table host at a cost of $4,000 for the year. Table hosts have the benefit of filling their table as they see fit, with a mix of family business clients and prospects, colleagues and partners.

Upcoming Luncheons:

• November 12, 2025 –Voices Across Generations
  Bachman & McNeely families share their perspectives, post-transition
• February 5, 2026 – Governance with Purpose: A Family Business Case from Vermeer
  Applying lessons learned from the third generation Vermeer family business perspective
• May 13, 2026 – Always Ready: Expected & Unexpected Sale of the Business
  A panel of families who sold their businesses, offering insights into preparing for success whether or not a sale ever occurs

Interested in joining our group of table hosts? Email center director Jon Keimig at jon.keimig@stthomas.edu.

Generational Continuity & Family Alignment

This course helps family businesses create their foundations to align their family, business and ownership for success. In three days over a four-month period, family businesses will learn to hold effective family meetings, make unified decisions, create strategies for ownership oversight and decision-making and more.

This course next runs on October 3, October 31 and December 12 on our Minneapolis campus.

Whether your family is experiencing hardship in personal relationships, succession planning or has a general need for financial planning, an advisor can add value to your business family. Learn what to look for in an adviser and see a list of family business advisors.

The Family Business Center provides education and resources to family businesses across Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. Since 2021, the center has collaborated with local business support organizations to expand access to family business education, ensuring business owners across all communities have the tools to succeed. In 2023, it launched a three-year pilot program to support family businesses on St. Paul’s East Side, funded by a charitable gift from The McNeely Foundation.