For the first time, the University of Vermont hosted the Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC): a family business conference now in its 11th year. From June 4-7, 154 registrants from 27 countries flooded into Burlington, Vermont to share research and engage in discussion on the growing field of family business.
This year’s FERC was fortunate to have a lineup of exceptional keynote speakers with proven leadership and expertise in their areas of research. Dr. Stuart Hart, the Steven Grossman Endowed Chair in Sustainable Business at UVM, spoke about the implications of sustainable business on the family enterprise. Fred P. Keller, the founder and Chair of Cascade Engineering, spoke on why family businesses are needed to solve some of the world’s toughest problems, while Dr. David Mitchell Reeb, the Mr. & Mrs. Lin Jo Yan Professor in Banking and Finance at the National University of Singapore, spoke on the procedures and methods to use when conducting research on family businesses.
In addition to attending the speaker series, participants presented and discussed their research, attended FERC’s first career academy, and networked with their academic peers. At the closing, attendees enjoyed a cruise along Lake Champlain, as awards were given out for achievements in the field of family business.
FERC began in 2004 as a research conference when co-founders Mark Green and UVM Professor Pramodita Sharma, noticed minimal North American presence at the family business conferences they were attending. While initially intended predominantly for North American based researchers in academia, FERC has since morphed into an international gathering where the leading experts in family business converge. “It’s gone beyond our expectations,” said Mark Green, “the numbers have grown, the diversity has grown.” Next year’s conference will take place at Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, in Brazil.
Burlington, Vermont will once again be the destination for international thought leaders and sustainable business experts when the UVM Business School will be co-hosting the 2015 Base of The Pyramid Summit with the ESW from July 16-17. For more information visit http://summit2015.bopglobalnetwork.org/