Today's Featured Biography
David Paradise
I am hoping to attend our 50th reunion. However, if I get called back to Krakow, Poland for some family business consultations, or to Cairo, Egypt to give a course to family business owners which has been postponed, or our first grandchild is being delivered early in New York City, regrettably I will not make it back to Minneapolis for the reunion weekend. A new or old family business client in distress would not qualify as a bona fide reason for missing our reunion. But if any of the above happens, I will be very disappointed because I have been wondering since the last reunion I attended in 1984 what has happened to all of you and I have been looking forward to getting updated on your various life experiences.
As for my life experiences, life has been good. Josh married Masha in 2004, after 8 years of courting which began at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Ct, when he returned to campus after a year working in Moscow. Ben met Emily, also at Wesleyan University during orientation week, before classes started, and they courted 9 years before marrying in 2006. Both Ben and Josh work in finance, in Boston and New York City, respectively.
I met Ellie in 1970 while doing a residency type program at Beth Israel Hospital, Department of Psychiatry in Boston, as part of my clinical doctorate from Smith College School for Social Work, 1971. Ellie was getting a PhD in psychology from Boston University. We married in 1971 and have remained in Boston.
I did my post doctorate work at Harvard Medical and Business Schools in 1973-74, I slowly expanded from clinical work to business consultation. In 1982 I co-founded my firm, the Family Business Resource Center.
The mission of the Family Business Resource Center is to help companies and high profile professionals solve business situations before they become business or personal crises. We help owners, managers and family members to acquire the business and interpersonal skills needed to set goals effectively and take appropriate strategic and organizational actions.
Our firm provides customized programs including:
*Succession planning
*Conflict management between and among generations
*Leadership development
*Team building
*Developing clear, meaningful communication among interested parties
*Family system alignment
Our motto is: Strong families Make Strong Businesses
Much of my work involves coaching and mentoring individuals and families in family-owned firms who come from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and family dynamics, as well as consulting with retailers, manufacturers, professional partnerships of lawyers, physicians, CPA's, engineers, and other service providers in corporate organizations. Scine 1982 I have assisted hundreds of local, regional, and national businesses which have turned to the Family Business Resource Center to meet the challenges of leadership, conflict management between and among generations, building sibling, cousin, and general family business teams, ownership structure, governance, strategic and business planning, family meetings and councils, board development, and succession and continuity issues. I am a certificate holder in Family Business Advising with Fellow Status from the Family Firm Institute, and serve as a mentor to other professionals, including one in Ireland.
Obviously I like doing what I am doing professionally and expect to continue for the next few years. However, Ellie and I have always enjoyed foreign travel. As I write this Ellie and I are getting ready for a three week trip to Italy to visit with old friends and explore some unknown parts of Tuscany and Umbria.
I hope to see you all soon at our reunion.
David
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