Businesses owned or dominated by the members of a single family make up as many as 95% of the businesses in America, including about 175 of the Fortune 500. Family businesses have unique problems not experienced by their non-family controled bretheren. It is in attempting to help family-owned businesses to deal with these unique issues and problems that Family Business Centers, Forums and Institutes are cropping up at universities all across America.

One of the earliest Family Business Institutes in the U.S. was founded at the University of San Diego in 1990 by a well known San Diego consultant and Jackie Freiberg, then Manager of Business Programs withthe Continuing Education Department of USD. Jackie served as the first Director of the USD Family Business Institute. After Jackie left the employ of the University to work with her husband's consulting firm, Dr. Scott Kunkel, Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at the USD School of Business Administration, was named the new Director of the Family Business Institute in January 1995. Jackie remains active with the USD FBI as Programs Consultant.

The Family Business Institute at the University of San Diego is a member organization made up of the owner/senior generation and the successor/junior generation of family members as well as non-family-member managers from many of the largest and most successful family-owned and operated businesses in the San Diego area.

The USD FBI presents 11 educational 2-hour programs per year for the members. For several programs each year the USD FBI brings in nationally recognized experts in such areas as family business succession, estate planning, communications, compensation for family and non-family managers, and other topics of interest to family business owners and successors.

Although the emphasis of the institute is on family business issues, several programs each year address business issues that affect every business, such as strategic planning, communications, delegation and decentralization, financing for growth, etc.

In some sessions, we conduct "roundtable discussions" in which the members have the opportunity to learn from each other and to discuss how they have dealt with specific problems or challenges. These roundtable discussions sometimes follow a short presentation on a topic of importance to focus the discussion.

For more information on the USD Family Business Institute, please click here.