Family Owned Business

Real Estate Families Build for Decades, Not Quarters.
We Help Them Lead Across Generations with Clarity and Conviction.

Our unique integrated advisory model helps families and closely held business professionalize leadership, plan for succession, and unlock growth without compromising values or legacy. We help family enterprises cut through complexity – combining executive search, strategic advisory, and compensation design in one integrated model. Unlike search-only or strategy-only firms, we deliver solutions that reflect the full picture.

We Are the Only Firm That Brings Together:

  • Deep understanding of both Family Office and Real Asset industry dynamics
  • Ability to integrate leadership, strategy, and compensation to drive alignment

We help families move from ‘high potential, high friction’ to ‘aligned, scalable, and future-ready’ by applying actionable diagnostics and a data-driven methodology that builds credibility and confidence in decision making. We serve as long-term partners in success, fostering enduring relationships built on trust rather than one-time projects.

Our practice is designed to support what matters most to family-led real estate organizations: trust, talent, and long-term vision.

How Families Benefit: 

Families face unique inflection points as they grow, transition leadership, and evolve their businesses. We work alongside owners and executives to tackle these moments with strategies that balance legacy and progress.

Client Challenges

Next Phase of Growth

How do we find our next phase of growth?

What We Do
How We Add Value
Growth planning, hold, sell, or expand strategies, capital structuring partnerships.
Align strategic vision across family branches and executive leadership.

The Next Generation

How do we prepare the next generation to lead?

What We Do
How We Add Value
Succession planning, org design, role clarity, talent readiness.
Create confident transitions across generations or external hires.

Drive the Right Behavior

How do we help drive the right behavior and retain the right talent?

What We Do
How We Add Value
Incentive plan design, family vs. non-family benchmarking, long-term rewards.
Ensure performance alignment with properly tailored plans supporting the short- and long-term strategy.

Advance Family Business

How do we bring in the right external perspective to advance our family business in alignment with our culture?

What We Do
How We Add Value
C-Suite executive recruitment (CEO, President/COO, CFO) and independent board/advisory member recruitment.
Bring external perspective without compromising trust or legacy.

Where we can start a partnership:

  • Leadership Succession Sprint (4 weeks): Accelerate decision-making and de-risk transitions by clarifying who’s ready, and what’s needed, for smooth leadership handoffs across family and non-family executives.
  • Organizational Diagnostic: Reveal whether your current structure, leadership team, and investment in talent are fit for the next phase of growth and identify where to course-correct.
  • Governance Tune-Up: Establish or refresh your advisory board to strengthen oversight, define decision rights, and ensure accountability across generations.
  • Compensation Review: Ensure pay plans drive performance, align with long-term strategy, and are competitive with both real estate peers and family office norms.
  • Search Readiness Brief: Set your next hire up for success by defining what great looks like before you launch an executive or board search.

Key Contacts

Ferguson_Bill

William J. Ferguson

Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Beatty_Graham_R

Graham Beatty

President

Cordingley_Mike (1)

Mike Cordingley

Managing Director

Charlie Apfelbach croppsed

Charlie Apfelbach

Managing Director

Julia Sweeney

Julia Sweeney

Managing Director

Michele Goldstein

Michele Goldstein

Director

Research + Insights

In The News

Scroll to Top