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Coffee Chat with David Karofsky: Navigating Your Family Business Journey
Details
Hosted by the MIT Sloan Family Business Club
Format: Casual, interactive Zoom conversation
If you come from a family business, are planning to return to one, or are simply curious about the world of advising enterprising families, this is the one conversation this semester you cannot afford to miss.
Join us for an intimate conversation with David Karofsky, Principal Consultant at The Family Business Consulting Group and one of the most respected practitioners in the field. With 30+ years of hands-on experience, David has guided hundreds of families through the exact challenges many Sloan students face:
- Leadership and ownership succession
- Sibling and cross-generational conflict
- Governance design and professionalization
- Building alignment in communication
- Balancing family roles with personal career paths
David will be joining us specifically to answer the questions you bring - about your own family enterprise, your future role, or your interest in family business consulting.
Why YOU should attend (especially if you’re from a family enterprise):
- Get personalized insights from one of the top consultants in the field—something clients normally pay thousands of dollars for.
- Pressure-test your own challenges (succession, communication, governance, identity/work-life boundaries, next-gen expectations) in a confidential, student-only space.
- Learn frameworks that immediately apply to situations you are navigating now or will face when returning home.
- Understand what real family business consulting looks like - far beyond what we read in class.
- Build connections with other Sloan students who are quietly facing similar dilemmas.
- No slides. No lecture. Just real talk with someone who has seen it all.
About the Speaker
David Karofsky is a Principal Consultant at FBCG, a Fellow of the Family Firm Institute, former VP of Marketing at a tech startup, former EMC exec, advisor to countless multi-generational families, co-author of So You’re in the Family Business, and a long-time mentor to MBAs. His entire practice is built around helping families communicate better, plan smarter, and transition leadership more successfully.
This session is ideal for:
- Students who will one day lead or advise their family enterprise
- Students exploring careers in family business consulting
- Next-gens navigating roles, expectations, or transitions
- Anyone curious about the inner workings of multi-generational organizations
Attendance Note
Because this is a highly interactive conversation, space is limited. To get the most value, we encourage you to come with a question or a challenge you’re comfortable discussing (anonymously or directly). This is a rare opportunity - please make the time to show up.
Speakers
David Karofsky
Principal consultant specializing in advising family businesses about the challenges and opportunities inherent to the family business.
The Family Business Consulting Group
https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkarofsky/
David Karofsky is a principal consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group, specializing in advising family businesses about the challenges and opportunities inherent to the family business. His client work is focused on building alignment around communication, executing the transition of ownership and leadership, conflict resolution, strategic planning, and forming governance structures for family businesses.
His interest in family business consulting was launched with his course work in family business dynamics at the Cambridge Center for Creative Enterprise. David’s work helping corporate executives develop superior listening and communication skills was honed by his professional training in executive team building, strategic decision making, effective communication, managing people, matrix management, and performance enhancement.
Prior to working with FBCG, David worked in his own family business consulting practice with his father for eight years. The father-son team are the authors of So You’re in the Family Business: A Guide to Sustainability. In addition, David was vice president of marketing for a software start-up where he helped launch the company and raise over $10 million in funding. David also served at EMC Corporation for eight years holding various corporate roles including managing operations for worldwide marketing.
The recipient of multiple achievement awards, David has been a guest speaker internationally and is a mentor to current and former MBA students at Northeastern University’s Graduate School of Business and serves on the Marketing Career Track Advisory Board. He is a founding member and former chair of the Boston chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization’s Young Adult Forum, member of the Family Firm Institute where he holds certificates in Family Wealth and Advanced Family Business Advising with Fellow status, member of the Board of Directors of the Rogers Foam Corporation and a former member of the Executive Board of Directors for the Men’s Associates at Hebrew Senior Life.
Learn more: https://www.thefbcg.com/consultants/david-karofsky/