Keynote Speaker

Christie Hefner, Chairman and Former CEO of Playboy Enterprises, Inc.

This year's 4th Annual Family Business Retreat was one of the most successful retreats the EMC Business Forum has ever hosted. With Christie Hefner as the keynote speaker, a woman who took over her father's business and skyrocketed its profits, accomplishments and global success, there was so substitute for her presence. She spoke eloquently of her trials and tribulations, failures and achievements and openly shared her life experiences with all attendees. This year's retreat was held February 27-28, 2009 at the Inn at Rancho Santa Fe, California. With 123 attendees representing 39 different companies and 23 speakers, the retreat was consistently filled with motion, excitement and numerous networking and educational opportunities.

The objective of the retreat was to help drive the growth and development of closely-held and family businesses as well as to provide the resources to create an action plan customized to meet individual businesses' strategic goals.

A few key highlights of the retreat were:

• Experts teaching how to build, grow and preserve the competitiveness of individual businesses
• Private, frank and in-depth discussions the EMC Business Forum sponsors, and community leaders
• Networking and collaborating with business peers and respected CEOs in the community
• Learning how to grow in a tight credit market
• Positioning companies for the inevitable recovery
• Structuring family business governance
• How to create TRUST in a multi-generational family work force

Contact

For more information, please contact:
Carmen Bianchi, Director at cbianchi@projects.sdsu.edu.