Tag: CEOs

Family members who are CEOs of their family business remain in the role longer and are rarely forced out. That’s one finding in a newly released research brief from the Koch Center for Family Business, “Family CEOs, Turnover, and Firm Performance.”

The brief was co-written by Koch Center Director Barton H. Hamilton, Professor Andres Hincapie (UNC), and research fellows Simone Hanna and Noah Lyman.

The brief details the following findings regarding the turnover and performance of CEOs in family businesses:

• CEO performance has a signicant impact on the likelihood of forced turnover.
• Family CEO successors remain CEO for longer and are almost never forced out.
• Insiders (both family and non-family) tend to be appointed in more profitable companies than outsiders. Insider CEOs appear to outperform outsiders as a result.
• Family insiders are younger and have more experience in the firm at time of appointment than unrelated insiders.
• Founders are more likely to be forcibly removed from office by year two than any other CEO type.

Find more research and resources on family business and succession at the Koch Center site.

Jordan Gonen, BSBA’19, has created a new website that features founders of some of the most famous and successful companies in America and the founders all have one important trait in common: they are immigrants.

Jordan told Mashable what inspired him to create the website called, Celebrate Immigrants:

“My dad came [to America] from Israel after the army. I always looked up to what immigrants have done,” Gonen said. “Everyone was posting that stat of 40 percent of the Fortune 500 was founded by immigrants.”

Gonen, from his dorm room at Washington University, began doing some research on Google and soon discovered what founders and CEOs on his Twitter timeline were referencing. But there was no in-depth roundup, other than a few listicles.

“‘We have to build this,'” Gonen said to his friend Henry Kaufman, a high school student in Denver. “Now.” While thousands of protesters flooded the largest airports around the country Saturday evening, Gonen and Kaufman put together a website that lists almost 70 immigrant company founders.

Link to the entire story on Mashable.

Link to a longer interview with Jordan on WashU’s The Source.

Sharon Price John, President and CEO of Build-A-Bear Workshop, will be the first speaker in the Century Club series that kicks off Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 7:30 a.m. – 9 a.m. in Emerson Auditorium, Knight Hall. The continental breakfast club/networking event featuring prominent business leaders has been an Olin tradition since 1979.

Sharon Price John became CEO of Build-A-Bear in 2013. Since then, she has led the company through a successful financial turnaround, while refreshing the nearly 20-year-old brand.

Before joining Build-A-Bear, Sharon was President of the Stride Rite Children’s Group LLC, leading product creation, marketing and distribution. Prior to SRCG, she drove the global strategy and marketing for Hasbro’s preschool portfolio. Prior to that, she held senior roles, including Marketing Director of Barbie and VP of International for the Disney Business Unit.

Her career began in the advertising industry working at top agencies in New York. Sharon holds a bachelors degree in communications from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and an MBA from Columbia University.