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Family Business at the Swartz Center

Scroll through your favorite streaming service and you’ll see that family businesses have captured our cultural imagination. Whether the Duncans, the Roys, or the Hos. And for good reason–they are relatable to many of us.

Family Businesses are also the chief form of global enterprise. Accounting for the vast majority of all businesses, there is no more significant structure of enterprise worldwide than the family business. Studies show that family firms, on average, outperform and outlast non-family businesses. They are an important way that communities build wealth. The family business also represents a uniquely complex enterprise to manage. Building on our 2021-2022 Strength in Numbers program, through which we’ve worked intensively with family businesses all all stages and scales throughout our Pittsburgh community, we have developed programming to better support our Carnegie Mellon and Pittsburgh area family business leaders.

Family Business Initiative Programs are free and open to the public, thanks to donors' generous support.

Contribute today!

Speaker Series
Peer Advisory Group
Family Business Course

Thank you to our sponsors!

Engage with Us

Meredith Meyer Grelli
Director of Project Olympus
Assistant Dean for Entrepreneurial Initiatives
Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship, Tepper School of Business
Entrepreneur in Residence, Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
mmgrelli@andrew.cmu.edu

Faculty member Meredith Meyer Grelli, is a family business founder and owner, who deeply understands the unique complexities facing family firms.

Leif Johnson, Jr.
Co-Facilitator, Family Business
ljohnsonjr@oahcpa.com

Sonya Ford
Program Manager
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
sonyaf@andrew.cmu.edu

Allyson Hince
Program Manager
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
ahince@andrew.cmu.edu

Aleksandar Petkov
Program Manager
Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship
apetkov@andrew.cmu.edu

Sign Up here for Entrepreneurship through Acquisition Opportunities and programming dedicated to privately held firms and family businesses!

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221201Giant Eagle, Inc. Chair and CEO Laura Shapira Karet and Chairman Emeritus David Shapira_gianteagleleadershipseriestalk_043_em.jpg

Family Business Leadership Speaker Series

Family Business Speaker Series, Open to the Community

Each year, we invite Family Business Leaders to join us for a talk open to the Tepper and broader Pittsburgh community.

Speakers include family business leaders, family enterprise thinkers, as well as advisors targeting particular pain points around succession, valuation, mediating family conflict and other family business specific topics.

2024-25 Family Business Leadership Speaker Series

An Entrepreneurial Journey on the Road Less Traveled

Stuart Weitzman 
Founder, Stuart Weitzman Shoes

Monday, September 16, 2024
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

Family Business Leadership Speaker Series Hits the Road in San Francisco, CA

Bart & Barb O'Brien
Founders and Owners, O'Brien Estate Winery

January 8, 2025
6:00pm - 9:00pm PST
Hotel Zetta San Francisco, 55 5th St, San Francisco, California 94103

Kristy Knichel, CEO & Owner, Knichel Logistics

Friday, March 21, 2025
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

2023-24 Family Business Leadership Speaker Series

It’s How We Play The Game: How DICK’S Built Its Business From a Small Bait and Tackle Shop to America’s Largest Sporting Goods Retailer

Edward W. Stack
Executive Chairman, Dick's Sporting Goods

Wednesday, November 29, 2023
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. EST
CMU, Simmons A, Tepper Quad, 4765 Forbes Avenue

Managing a Multi Cultural and Intergenerational Family Business

George Tong (MSIA '90)
President, Gemini Food Corporation

Wednesday, February 7, 2024
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

Helen Hanna Casey, CEO, Hanna Holdings

Wednesday, March 13, 2024
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

2022-23 Family Business Leadership Speaker Series

Success and Innovation at Giant Eagle

Laura Shapira Karet
Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Giant Eagle, Inc.

David S. Shapira
Chairman Emeritus, Board of Directors, Giant Eagle, Inc.
Chairman, David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation

December 1, 2022
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

From Mississippi Dirt Roads to the Obama Presidential Center: Building Generational Success

Stephanie Hickman
President & CEO, Trice Construction Company

Tuesday, February 7, 2023
5:30 - 6:30 p.m. EST
CMU, Simmons A, Tepper Quad, 4765 Forbes Avenue

Emily Sheetz, VP of Strategy and IT , Sheetz, Inc

Wednesday, March 22, 2023
12:30 - 1:30 p.m. EST
CMU Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, Tepper Quad, 3rd Floor, 4765 Forbes Avenue

Peer Advisory Groups

In Spring 2023, the Swartz Center will kick off 6-8 person advisory groups which will meet on campus once every 6 weeks. The group will meet for a brief 15-20 minute talk by Tepper Faculty in the Swartz Center. Then the advisory groups will break out into separate rooms for confidential discussions. We will create these advisories, grouping businesses at like stages of development. We will provide a new prompt each session and a faculty or an alumni moderator for each group. All groups will sign NDAs and will be held to strict confidentiality.

Interested in participating? Email mmgrelli@andrew.cmu.edu to be added to the list of interested business owners.

Tepper Courses Relevant to Family Business Leaders

45-819 Family Business
45-807 Commercialization & Innovation Strategy
45-817 Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition

Family Business Course

Offered through Tepper School of Business

This course is geared towards students who are involved with the management of a family business, either their own or someone else’s. The course is relevant as well to those interested in family firms as prospective targets in mergers and acquisitions, as well as students interested in a career supporting family enterprises via succession planning, estate planning, or through management consulting.

Offered Annually, Mini 2