May/June 2008 - Although the family has chosen to remain anonymous, it seems that they too may have run out of interested family to continue the business. There were seven family shareholders and only two were actively in management. The managing family members were in their 50s when they decided that it was time to explore the “sell option.”

March 2008 - According to the American Family Business Survey, the number of female CEOs or presidents has doubled every five years since 1997. The most recent survey, done in the summer of 2007, indicates that 24 percent of the businesses surveyed currently have a female CEO or president – up from about 5 percent in 1997.

January 2008 - In 1986 a group of multidisciplinary professionals got together to explore family business. Twenty years later that group has evolved into the Family Firm Institute (FFI), an international organization of service providers to family firms.

November 1, 2007 - Nothing is more critical to both the short and long term success of a family business than the transition between the first (G1) and second (G2) generation. Fewer than half of family companies make it from the first to the second generation.

September 1, 2007 - Parents with a special needs child worry most about what will happen to that child when they are no longer able to care for him or her. If the family is fortunate enough to own a business, planning for the child’s life after the parent’s death can become complicated.