Professor Ivan Lansberg is an organizational psychologist in New Haven, Connecticut. He is co-founder and a senior partner of Lansberg, Gersick & Associates LLC, a research and consulting firm specializing in family enterprise and family philanthropy. Ivan was a professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management for seven years, and a Research Fellow at Yale’s Institute for Social and Policy Studies. Prior to his affiliation with Yale, Ivan taught at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. The son of an entrepreneur, he has personally experienced many of the issues associated with family business ownership.
Ivan is a frequent speaker at family business programs organized by universities and industry groups. Ivan has also helped establish research and executive programs on family business in many colleges and universities, both in the U.S. and abroad. These centers include the International Institute for Management Development, in Lausanne, Switzerland; the Montreal Institute for Family Enterprise; El Instituto de la Empresa Familiar, in Barcelona, Spain; and the Universidad de los Andes and the Escuela Adolfo Ibañes, in Santiago, Chile.
One of the founders of the Family Firm Institute, Ivan was the first editor of the Family Business Review, the professional journal of the family business field. For the past ten years, he and his associates have done extensive research on leadership succession and family business continuity. He has written widely on family business issues. He is a frequent contributor to the Harvard Business Review his most recent articles include The Tests of a Prince (September 2007) and Cello de Familia (with Kelin Gersick) – on the governance and continuity challenges facing Latin American Family Enterprises - (August 2006). His latest book Succeeding Generations, published by the Harvard Business School Press (1999), is on succession and continuity in family enterprises. He is also a co-author of Generation to Generation: Life Cycles of the Family Business, published by HBS Press in 1997. Ivan’s work has been featured in such publications as the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Family Business magazine. His books and articles have been translated into many languages, including: Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and Dutch.
Ivan’s broad consulting experience includes work with family businesses in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe and Latin America. He also participates on the boards of directors of a number of family companies.
Ivan holds Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. degrees from Columbia University.
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One of the most critical times in a family enterprise’s evolution is moving from the processes, people and structures that proved successful for a controlling owner to those that support a sibling partnership. Engage with faculty from the John L. Ward Center for Family Enterprises for leadership insights on governance architecture and effective decision making to support a vision that will guide multigenerational continuity.
Join peers from leading family-run organizations to learn how family governance can help sustain business continuity, family unity and commitment. Come away equipped and energized to realize your vision for the future of your family enterprise with confidence.
As an aspiring leader within family enterprise, you’ll discover how to establish your credibility and authority in the business community, among family shareholders, with the board and management team. As an established leader, you’ll explore the complexities of mentoring the next generation and of managing succession and letting-go. For all, the program can enable you to better manage the nuanced paradoxes that are characteristic of family business leadership.
