FAMILIES SUMMIT
OF MINDS 2026

Glen Galaich
CEO, Stupski Foundation

Glen Galaich, Ph.D. (he/him), is the CEO of the Stupski Foundation—one of the nation’s most ambitious philanthropic spend-down efforts that is returning all of its resources by 2029 to advance health equity, food justice, postsecondary education, and economic
opportunity in the San Francisco Bay Area and Hawaiʻi. His professional mission is to support equity, justice, and dignity in solidarity with communities that have been denied these essential values throughout history. He is committed to combating systemic racism, sexism, and discrimination in all its forms; reducing practices of donor control that restrict resources to nonprofit organizations; and supporting a multiracial democracy.

Named one of TIME100’s most influential people in philanthropy, Glen has worked for over two decades in partnership with philanthropists, policymakers, and community leaders to amplify their impact to advance social change. With an extensive background
in human rights and philanthropy management, he has a history of building relationships based on his honest outlook and ability to cut through the noise, outlining steps necessary to effect lasting change. As the co-host of the Break Fake Rules podcast and author of the Who Gives? Substack, Glen questions philanthropy’s self-imposed rules and seeks ways philanthropy can better serve communities and contribute to lasting systemic change.

Lisa Wolverton
President, Forward Global

Lisa is one of three owners of the Pacific Investment Corporation, a family-owned real estate holdings and investment company, where she has several governance roles. She also leads the family’s private foundation, the Vancouver-based Wolverton Foundation, which is dedicated to elevating exposure to the arts and facilitating artistic programs for children who would otherwise be excluded from these opportunities. The foundation has provided a permanent home for The Sarah McLachlan School of Music, its primary grantee partner, for over fifteen years. 

In addition to the family’s business, Lisa is the President of Forward Global, a member Community of 300+ wealth holders who collectively deploy $1 billion annually toward a thriving, sustainable, more equitable world. A global platform to amplify proven models and best practices, it supports leaders through curated learning, community and action, collectively addressing urgent issues including climate, democracy, AI, the new economy, social and gender justice, and mental health. From 2021 to 2023 Lisa was a member of the Council of Advocates for the Freedom Fund, a global fund whose sole aim is ending slavery and exploitation. She is also a former member of the President’s Council of the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and resolving deadly conflict. 
A passionate advocate for youth, Lisa has worked for many years to improve the lives of children in Canada. She has served on the Board of Directors of UNICEF Canada, the Board of Directors of Family Services of the North Shore and was a mentor for the Loran Scholarship Foundation of Canada. Recently, Lisa was awarded a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, from Capilano University, located in North Vancouver. Lisa is the mother of three wonderful daughters.

Matt Knight
Executive Professor, University of Alberta, Executive Director ABFI

Matt Knight serves as Executive Director of the Alberta Business Family Institute (ABFI) and as an Executive Professor at the University of Alberta, where his work centers on family business strategy, governance, applications of artificial intelligence, and the development of next-generation ownership. He is particularly focused on translating academic research into practical, actionable strategies that family enterprises across a wide range of industries can put to immediate use.

Matt's career has moved between consulting and industry, including roles at Deloitte, EY, and Productivity Alberta, as well as leadership positions inside family businesses themselves. He holds the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA), ACFBA, and ICD.D designations along with an MBA, and is currently completing a Doctor of Business Administration at the University of Calgary, reflecting an ongoing commitment to both scholarship and practice.

Matt speaks at conferences across North America and Europe, teaches family business, consulting, and strategy at the University of Alberta, hosts the Table Talk podcast featuring conversations with business family leaders and advisors, and publishes The Long Table, a weekly newsletter on family business trends.

He lives in Edmonton with his partner, two daughters, and their dog, and enjoys running, biking, skiing, and outdoor activity generally.

Andrew Keyt
Founder, Generation6

Andrew Keyt brings over 25 years of professional family business consulting experience and is an internationally known  business strategist and succession planning expert. Prior to founding Generation6, Andrew was the President and Founder of Keyt Consulting, a private firm that assists family enterprises with succession and strategic planning, dealing with family conflict and communication, working with adult sibling and cousin teams, and executing emergency management transitions. He has worked extensively with some of the largest enterprising families in the United States. Andrew served as the Clinical Professor in Family Business and Executive Director of the Loyola University Chicago Family Business Center for over 20 years. In addition, he led the Family Business Network – United States (FBN-USA), the leading network for business-owning families worldwide, as President and member of the board between 1998 and 2020. Andrew is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Family Firm Institute Interdisciplinary Award, recognizing outstanding achievement in the advancement of interdisciplinary services to business families. He is a published author, presenter and contributor of more than 100 articles in trade journal publications. Andrews’s book, “Myths and Mortals: Family Business Leadership and Succession Planning,” leverages groundbreaking research to guide new family business leaders on how to establish credibility and run their operations their way.

Andrew holds an Executive MBA for Families in Business, an M.S. in Marital and Family Therapy and a B.A. in Psychology. He is based in Chicago. Find Andrew on LinkedIn or Twitter, or contact him at akeyt@generation6.com.

Peter Jaskiewicz
Founder & Director, Family Enterprise Legacy Institute

I serve as CEO of the Contentment Foundation, where we bring scientifically grounded wellbeing practices into school systems around the world. My path into this work unexpectedly began in luxury goods. Raised within a 153 year old family business crafting objects of desire, I found myself with an early view of accumulation’s endgame. It left me curious about enoughness, perception, and the stories people tell themselves through the things they pursue. I feel grateful to be born in a time where contemplative traditions meet rigorous science. Since college, I have been drawn to the fertile borders: inner development and outer systems, neuroscience and meditation, education reform and family enterprise, the visible architecture of organisations and the invisible patterns moving through people. I also support EtonHouse Community Fund, the Center for Contemplative Research, and Dharma Gates, each exploring education, contemplative practice, and human flourishing through a different lens. Intelligence solves the problem before us. Wisdom questions whether we are asking the right thing at all. I come most alive where curiosity sharpens into inquiry, where people gather around timeless questions, and where small acts of presence and care send ripples far beyond what the eye can see.

Navin Amasaruiya
CEO, Contentment Foundation 

I serve as CEO of the Contentment Foundation, where we bring scientifically grounded wellbeing practices into school systems around the world. My path into this work unexpectedly began in luxury goods. Raised within a 153 year old family business crafting objects of desire, I found myself with an early view of accumulation’s endgame. It left me curious about enoughness, perception, and the stories people tell themselves through the things they pursue. I feel grateful to be born in a time where contemplative traditions meet rigorous science. Since college, I have been drawn to the fertile borders: inner development and outer systems, neuroscience and meditation, education reform and family enterprise, the visible architecture of organisations and the invisible patterns moving through people. I also support EtonHouse Community Fund, the Center for Contemplative Research, and Dharma Gates, each exploring education, contemplative practice, and human flourishing through a different lens. Intelligence solves the problem before us. Wisdom questions whether we are asking the right thing at all. I come most alive where curiosity sharpens into inquiry, where people gather around timeless questions, and where small acts of presence and care send ripples far beyond what the eye can see.

Neils Veldhuis (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
CEO, Fraser Institute

Niels Veldhuis serves as President of the Fraser Institute, Canada’s most influential think tank. With nearly 25 years in public policy, Niels has authored six books and more than 50 peer-reviewed studies on a wide range of economic issues. In 2011, he and his co-authors received the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher International Memorial Award for the best-selling book The Canadian Century. Widely respected for his insights, Niels appears regularly in media across North America. His hundreds of commentaries have been featured in over 50 outlets, including The Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal, National Post, and The Economist. Renowned for explaining complex economic issues in a clear and accessible way, he speaks frequently to audiences ranging from business groups to students and corporate leaders. Niels has moderated discussions with many prominent figures, including a rare joint appearance with U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, as well as Prime Ministers Stephen Harper and Brian Mulroney. He has also led high-profile conversations with esteemed journalists and international diplomats. An alumnus of Simon Fraser University, Niels was named one of Vancouver’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2010. He is an active member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and currently serves as Regional Chair for YPO in Canada.

Ivan Lansberg (PLENARY SPEAKER)
Founding Partner, LGA

Ivan Lansberg is the Co-Founder at Lansberg Gersick Advisors, where he advises complex family enterprises worldwide. Over the last four decades, he has made significant contributions to the understanding of family business governance and succession. He was one of the founders of the Family Firm Institute (FFI) and the first editor of its professional journal, Family Business Review. 

After receiving his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Columbia University, Ivan taught at the Columbia Graduate School of Business. He then became a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Organization and Management for seven years before founding LGA.

His books Succeeding Generations and Generation to Generation were both published by Harvard Business School Press and have been widely praised as landmark works. His latest book (co-authored with Devin DeCiantis) is entitled The Enduring Enterprise: How Family Business Thrive in Turbulent Conditions and was published by Public Affairs in November 2024.

Since 2000 Ivan has been on the faculty of the Kellogg School of Management, and is a frequent speaker at family business programs organized by universities and industry groups.For more information, please visit our website: lga.global

Zita Cobb (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
Founder & CEO, Shorefast and Shorefast Institute for Place-Based Economies

Zita Cobb is a Canadian business leader and social entrepreneur who helped transformed her birthplace into a model for community-driven economic development. Born on Fogo Island, Newfoundland and Labrador in 1958, her family was forced to leave when the cod fishery collapsed. After studying business in Ottawa, she became CFO of JDS Uniphase, a global leader in fiber optics technology.

Following her retirement in 2001, Cobb returned to Fogo Island and founded the Canadian registered charity Shorefast in 2004 with her siblings, Alan and Anthony, with a mission to strengthen the community’s resilience through place-based economic development. In 2013, Shorefast opened Fogo Island Inn, now a Michelin Three Keys property and an internationally acclaimed example of regenerative tourism. Cobb's pioneering work has earned her a membership in the Order of Canada, and recognition as the first social entrepreneur inducted into the Canadian Business Hall of Fame.

In December 2025, Cobb launched the Shorefast Institute for Place Based Economies, which brings together communities, governments, and markets to develop and expand place-based approaches to economic development, with the mission to create prosperity and dignity for more people and more places.

Learn more at: The Shorefast Institute - Shorefast

Chip Conley (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
Founder & Executive Chairman, MEA

Chip Conley is on a midlife mission. After disrupting the hospitality industry twice, first as the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second-largest operator of boutique hotels in the U.S., and then as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, leading a worldwide revolution in travel, Conley co-founded MEA (Modern Elder Academy) in January 2018 in Baja California, Mexico. Inspired by his experience of intergenerational mentoring as a ‘modern elder’ at Airbnb, where his guidance was instrumental to the company’s extraordinary transformation from fast-growing start-up to the world’s most valuable hospitality brand, MEA is the world's first ‘midlife wisdom school’ and opened a campus in 2024 on a 2,600-acre regenerative horse ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dedicated to reframing the concept of aging, MEA supports students to navigate midlife with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. TIME magazine honored MEA as one of the 100 Greatest Places to Visit in 2024. A New York Times bestselling author, Conley has authored eight books, given three TED talks, has a daily Wisdom Well blog, and a weekly podcast The Midlife Chrysalis which has included a wide variety of guests from Maria Shriver to Arthur Brooks to Elizabeth Gilbert to Rich Roll. 

Thomas Eymond-Laritaz  
Founder & CEO, Highgate

Thomas Eymond-Laritaz is the Founder & CEO of Highgate, a strategic advisory firm expert in dispute resolution and special situations. Thomas has advised more than a dozen Presidents and Prime Ministers, and numerous CEOs and prominent individuals throughout the world on large-scale disputes, crises and philanthropic projects.

Thomas worked for the French Prime Minister in Paris, and served as senior political adviser to the Bulgarian Prime Minister in Sofia and to the Georgian President in Tbilisi. He worked for five years in Kyiv as Chief of Staff to Victor Pinchuk, one of Ukraine’s most prominent investors. Before setting up Highgate in 2020, Thomas served as Managing Director at Mercury and Executive Director at APCO Worldwide in London.

Thomas has a longstanding passion for philanthropy and sustainability. He worked for the French Ministry of Environment and played a key role in the creation of the first international Emissions Trading System (ETS). He designed and led the largest philanthropic foundation in Eastern Europe, and spearheaded the creation of an Aspen Institute in both Ukraine and the U.K. He currently sits on the board of the Aspen Institute Kyiv.

Thomas is a French and British citizen. He graduated from the Ecole des Mines de Paris and the Corps des Mines.

Dr. Michele Mikeska Jaffe 
Relationship + Wealth Psychologist

Dr. Michele Mikeska Jaffe is a psychologist, consultant, and founder of a boutique private practice specializing in the psychology of family enterprises, relationships, and multigenerational family systems. She partners with individuals, families, family offices, and their trusted advisors to make the invisible dynamics of family enterprise visible—from communication, identity, and belonging to ownership, stewardship, and succession. Through bespoke advisory, coaching, and therapeutic engagements, Michele helps families build the relational foundations that sustain healthy families, responsible ownership, and enduring enterprises.

Previously, Michele served as Executive Director of Family Dynamics for J.P. Morgan's Family Engagement & Governance team, where she partnered with advisors supporting ultra-high-net-worth families as they navigated the human dimensions of wealth, governance, and continuity. She also served as Executive Director of Family Business Network USA.

Michele's multidisciplinary perspective is rooted in psychology, design, and innovation. Earlier in her career, she led The New York Times R&D Innovation Lab, exploring emerging technologies that help people better understand the world. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Her doctoral dissertation, When She Has the Money, was the first to examine the dynamics of financially diverse marriages, crosscultural family systems, and women with significant inherited wealth.

An internationally recognized speaker, facilitator, and thought partner, Michele is known for blending psychological insight with practical governance. She helps families move beyond difficult conversations to strengthen communication, cultivate trust, prepare thoughtful owners, and foster meaningful stewardship. Her work is grounded in a simple belief: enduring family enterprises are built not only through sound governance and thoughtful structures, but through healthy humans and relationships.

Michele lives in Northern California with her husband, two daughters, and a hamster named Mochi.

Matthew D. Mitchell (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

Matthew D. Mitchell is a Senior Fellow in the Fraser Institute's Centre for Human Freedom. Before joining the Institute, he spent many years as a senior fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, where he continues to hold a position as an affiliated senior scholar, reflecting a long-running research relationship with that institution even after moving to a new organizational home.

Matthew earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in economics from George Mason University, along with a B.A. in political science and a B.S. in economics from Arizona State University. His research and writing concentrate on economic freedom, public choice economics, and what is sometimes called the economics of government favoritism, examining how policy decisions can create winners and losers depending on political rather than market considerations.

Over the course of his career, Matthew has testified before the United States Congress as well as several state legislatures, and he has advised federal, state, and local policymakers on both fiscal and regulatory policy. His research has drawn attention from a wide range of national media outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, National Public Radio, and C-SPAN, reflecting the broad relevance of his work on how government policy shapes economic outcomes.

Vern Glaser  
PhD, MBA, BA University of Alberta

Dr. Vern L. Glaser is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise in the Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Management at the Alberta School of Business, where he also serves as the Academic Director of the Alberta Business Family Institute (ABFI). His research and teaching focus on algorithmic organizing — how AI and data analytics reshape decision-making, governance, and strategy — and on family enterprise. His work has appeared in journals including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Science, Organization Studies, and Organization Theory. His paper “The Biography of an Algorithm” received the James G. March Prize from EGOS, and he recently co-edited Algorithmic Organizing in the Research in the Sociology of Organizations series.

Vern brings more than two decades of industry experience to his academic work. In 2005 he founded Red Hill, a consulting and technology services firm that delivers strategy, analytics, and AI-enabled software to mid-sized businesses, many of them family-owned. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California, an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, and a BA in Economics from UCLA.

Additional information: www.vernglaser.com and https://apps.ualberta.ca/directory/person/vglaser

David R. Smith (KEYNOTE SPEAKER)
Smith Advisory Services Inc

David partners with enterprising families to strengthen stewardship and renew purpose across generations. Appreciated for his intellectual rigour, discretion and empathy, he helps families align intentions and oversight so they can collaborate more e@ectively and navigate continuity with confidence.

With 25 years of consulting experience, David has worked with family o@ices and across a wide range of industries and sectors, bringing a calm and resourceful approach to di@erent contexts and stakeholder groups. He has supported those stewarding less than $50 million to more than $50 billion in assets, with a particular focus on larger family firms and complex family enterprise systems. He helps families navigate the issues that matter most: governance, decision-making and the evolving role of owners; continuity and succession; next-generation leadership; and collaboration and conflict -each essential to e@ective stewardship.

Families and their advisors value him as a trusted thinking partner and sounding board, and his approach is grounded in situational sensitivity, principled judgment and a commitment to meaningful, lasting outcomes. David has also played a leading role in advancing the professional standards of the field and was recently recognized by his peers as an inaugural Fellow. Over six years on Family Enterprise Canada’s National FEA Council, he contributed to defining principles of practice and strengthening collaboration among advisors. During his career, he has also partnered closely with several global thought leaders committed to enhancing competitiveness and prosperity across industries.

His commitment to leadership and community is extensive. He has been recognized with the Clarkson Laureateship for Public Service and the Arbour Award. He formerly served as Chair of Rise, a national charitable lender supporting entrepreneurs a@ected by mental illness or addiction and continues to contribute as a member of the advisory board of Purposeful Third Act and as a member of the Governing Board of Massey College, where he chairs the Quadrangle Society. David serves as an Executive in Residence at the Rotman

School of Management and is a dynamic moderator, panelist and teacher. He also mentors and coaches family leaders across generations. He holds an MBA in Strategy and Integrative Thinking from Rotman, and is a certified Family Enterprise Advisor, Fellow (F.FEA), corporate director (ICD.D) and professional coach (CPC). He also holds degrees in Psychology and English Literature, and in Adult Education

Devin deCiantis (PLENARY SPEAKER)
Managing Partner, LGA

Devin deCiantis is Managing Partner at LGA, where he specializes in the financial, organizational, and strategic aspects of family enterprise, bringing a background in corporate strategy, economic analysis, and investment banking to his work with family businesses, family offices, and family foundations.

Raised in Toronto, Canada, Devin holds a master's from the Kennedy School at Harvard with a focus in finance and economics, along with a Bachelor of Business Administration from York University. He has worked with private- and public-sector leaders throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and teaches about family enterprise at Harvard University and the Kellogg School of Management.

Devin's work with family enterprises focuses on continuity planning, governance design, enterprise risk, and shareholder development, and he is frequently invited to speak at global conferences on a range of related topics. His work has been published in journals including the Harvard Business Review and The Atlantic. He recently published his first book, The Enduring Enterprise, co-authored with Ivan Lansberg, in November 2024.

Devin lives in Toronto with his wife, Nathalie, and their two children, balancing an international advisory practice with a strong home base in Canada.

Torri Hawley 
7th generation, Vollrath Company. Chief Learning Officer, Tamarind Learning

Torri is the Chief Learning Officer (US) for Tamarind Learning and has a decade of experience working with enterprising families. She herself is a seventh-generation member of an enterprising family that owns a 150-year-old operating company. From an early age she was empowered to play an active role in governance, helping form a family council and championing next-gen education and engagement. She now sits on her family office and operating companies’ boards. Having experienced the variety of joys and challenges of being part of a family business herself, Torri is passionate about helping next-generation members build their confidence and credibility through empowerment and learning.

Torri attended Stetson University where she graduated with a BBA in Family Enterprise Management, and later completed the Family Firm Institute’s Certificate in family business advising and family wealth advising. She earned her master’s degree in strategic human resources from the University of Denver.

Torri has shared her perspective as a rising gen stakeholder for Family Business’ Transitions conferences, Institute for Family Governance, Purposeful Planning Institute, Family Business Network, Family Office Exchange, and more. She was nominated as one of Family Business Magazine’s “25 Under 35: Next-Gen Members to Watch.” Torri is actively involved in community efforts and charitable work to address childhood hunger on a local scale. She lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her husband Charlie and her four-legged best friend Murray.

Gena Rotstein 
Founder, Karma & Cents 

Gena is widely regarded as one of Canada's leading experts in social enterprise and philanthropy. Since 2002, she has worked with philanthropic families across North America on legacy planning and philanthropic transition management. She founded Canada's first philanthropic brokerage firm, Dexterity Consulting, which grew into Dexterity Ventures and the venture philanthropy fund Place2Give Foundation before she sold the company in 2016 to the B-Corp Good Done Great. In September 2017, together with business partner Richard Ouellette, she launched Karma & Cents Inc., a social impact lab that helps single and multi-family offices design impact-driven legacy and philanthropy plans; the firm has since advised on more than $200 million in charitable assets across Canada.

With more than 20 years of social business and nonprofit experience in Canada and the United States, Gena has worked with some of Canada's most influential family foundations and financial institutions, and her commentary has appeared in the Globe and Mail, the Financial Post, and on outlets including BNN and CBC. In her free time, Gena is a long-distance cyclist, and she divides her time between Calgary, Alberta and Potsdam, Germany.

Caroline Phaneuf 
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Crysalia 

Caroline is co-founder and the Managing Director of Crysalia, the learning and leadership development office for multi-generational business families navigating wealth and legacy transitions.

Under her leadership, Crysalia was awarded the Family Wealth Report Award for Family Wealth Counselling, as well as the STEP Private Client Awards’ Family Business Advisory Practice of the Year in 2024.

Drawing from her experience as a second-generation business family member and 20 years of expertise in strategy, business intelligence, leadership development, and transition management, Caroline is a skilled facilitator and sought-after international speaker on topics relating to family dynamics, governance, and intergenerational transitions.

She also heads Crysalia’s division specializing in leadership development, corporate strategy and organizational transformation for businesses and family offices, building on the organizational psychology practice her father established in 1989.

Caroline holds an MSc in Advanced Marketing Management from Lancaster University and a business degree from McGill University. She is a certified coach, holds a Six Sigma Green Belt from McGill University, and completed governance training at Université Laval.

Beyond her professional pursuits, Caroline is a passionate skier and cyclist who is actively engaged in the Montreal community, including on the Board of Directors of the Mission Old Brewery’s Patricia Mackenzie Pavilion. She is the proud mother of Elizabeth (12) and Victoria (10) with Eric, her partner since college.

Wendy Sage-Hayward  
Co-founder mGen Education

Wendy Sage-Hayward works at the intersection of family, ownership, and business. She has lived on both sides of the table. As a senior consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, she advises enterprising families, owners, and boards around the world on the questions that never show up on a balance sheet: who leads next, who owns what, how decisions get made, and how the family stays whole throughout it all. Her work spans governance, continuity planning, leadership development, next-generation preparation, and conflict resolution. Wendy spent years as a fifth-generation partner and director in her father's family business. Today she is a first-generation owner, building an eco-tourism business with her own family in BC's Southern Gulf Islands and living the questions she asks her clients to answer.

Wendy is Academic Director at Family Enterprise Canada, where she leads instruction for the Family Enterprise Advisors (FEA) program. She also teaches at Columbia University and serves on faculty in the Family Shift program at Western University's Ivey Business School, and is co-founder of mGen Education Inc., which trains family firms and their advisors to navigate generational transitions. She is co-author of Human Resources in Family Business: Maximizing the Power of Your People and Own It! How to Develop an Owner's Mindset at Every Age, along with numerous articles and book chapters. She lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.