UNH Center For Family Business Kicks Off Leadership Program

Contact: Lori Wright
603-862-0574
UNH Media Relations

Nov. 30, 2004



DURHAM, N.H. – The Center for Family Business at the University of New Hampshire invites area companies to participate in its Leadership Development Program for family and nonfamily managers.

The program begins Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2005, at UNH Manchester. The deadline to sign up is Friday, Dec. 17, 2004. The program consists of eight full-day work sessions and is taught by faculty of the Whittemore School of Business and Economics and experts in family business. A certificate in family business leadership will be awarded to those who attend at least six of eight sessions.

The Leadership Development Program assists the next generation assume greater leadership roles in their family businesses. Participants develop stronger leadership skills, recognize leadership styles of others, and reflect on their own abilities, talents and opportunities in the company. Attendees build confidence, apply new management skills to company projects and problems, and build a peer network of support. Senior generation attendees develop new ideas and approaches to leadership and also have the opportunity to improve their skills in assessing the leadership potential of those people who report to them.

“Unlike other leadership classes, the focus of this program is on family and family-business,” according to Barbara Draper, director of the Center for Family Business. “Most attendees are family members working in the company -- the future generation of leaders for the company -- thus much of the learning is centered around real life issues from the participants' own experiences. Together they learn to be better leaders and to share solutions to common problems.”

Sessions will include a range of leadership concepts and models, self-assessment tools, and discussions of problems and issues faced by the participants in their current jobs. Participants also will create a Personal Strategic Plan (PSP) that will provide a long-term picture of their career and action plan for the future.

Tuition is $1,695 for members and $2,000 for nonmembers. For more information contact Barbara Draper at barbara.draper@unh.edu, or (603) 862-1107, or Stephen Fink, professor emeritus, at stephen.fink@unh.edu or (603) 862-3361.

The center, under UNH’s Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the UNH Graduate School, is sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group, Genus Resources, Baker Newman & Noyes, Pierce Atwood, MPI Management Planning, Inc., and Ocean National Bank. It is a membership program to provide owners and managers of entrepreneurial businesses with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges, concerns, and solutions.