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Family Board Advisors

For families

The right outsiders for the inside room.

Every service we offer answers one question: does your board match the moment your family enterprise is in?

01 · Build

Board Formation

for your first board

For families and founders building their first advisory or fiduciary board. This is the highest-stakes governance moment a family company faces, and the decisions that come before any candidate conversation determine everything that follows.

We guide you through

  • Advisory board vs. fiduciary board — and what your ownership structure actually calls for
  • Board size, composition, and the skills matrix tied to your strategy
  • Alignment among family shareholders on what the board is for (and is not for)
  • Director compensation benchmarking for private and family companies
  • A board prospectus that attracts the caliber of director you deserve

Outcome: a board design your whole ownership group stands behind — and a clear brief for the search that follows.

02 · Search

Independent Director & Board Chair Search

Retained search for independent directors, board chairs, and committee chairs — for family businesses, family offices, and closely held companies.

Our process

  1. Governance assessment

    We start with the board, not the résumé pile — skills gaps, family dynamics, strategic horizon.

  2. The search brief

    A prospectus and skills matrix your family has aligned on.

  3. Market search

    Technology-assisted research across the full market — not just a database — refined by twenty years of knowing who actually performs in family boardrooms.

  4. Family-fit evaluation

    Candidates assessed for temperament with founders, comfort with emotion in the boardroom, and experience navigating ownership dynamics — not just credentials.

  5. References that go deeper

    We speak to people who've sat in boardrooms with our candidates, not just worked alongside them.

  6. Onboarding

    Placement is the midpoint, not the finish. We prepare your new director for your family's board — and your board for its new director.

03 · Family office

Family Office Governance & Director Placement

Independent voices for family office boards, investment committees, and directly held operating companies — engagements where discretion, values alignment, and long-tenured trust matter more than any credential. We understand the difference between governing an operating company and governing a family’s capital, and we recruit accordingly.

04 · Established boards

Board Assessment & Refreshment

For established boards: composition reviews, skills-gap analysis against forward strategy, director evaluation, and succession planning for retiring directors and chairs. Boards age; strategy moves. We help you keep the two aligned.

How engagements work

We work on a retained basis with transparent, fixed professional fees agreed before we begin — never contingent percentages that reward speed over fit. Most searches complete in 90–120 days. Board formation engagements typically run 6–10 weeks and can stand alone or lead directly into a search.

Fee model
Fixed retainer
Director search
90–120 days
Board formation
6–10 weeks
Schedule a conversation

Not sure whether your board is ready for what's ahead?

Take the complimentary Board Readiness Snapshot — a 12-minute assessment that shows where your governance stands and what companies like yours typically do next.

Start the Snapshot