Family Business Magazine’s NextGens to Watch Class of 2024 consists of 22 standout rising-generation members who are making a difference in their family enterprises.
ELIZA FOSTER, 25
Sixth generation
Gideon Hixon Fund, Malibu, Calif.
Eliza is an associate in the Gideon Hixon Fund, the venture capital arm of the Hixon family. She graduated from the University of Denver, where she majored in psychology with a double minor in gender and women’s studies and in marketing.
“While working in a summer internship role for my family venture capital division, I researched the topical application of a technology we had invested in that was being used for medical foods,” Eliza says.
She saw an opportunity to use the technology for dermatological applications. “This led me to start my own company, negotiate a license for the technology and build a skin care company targeting acne.
“After graduating, I went into the family training program to learn investing and build my own skills as I developed my own company. Over the past two years I have served as a venture capital associate and have also been active in family educational programs as well as the communications efforts (using Trusted Family). Recently, I have been a presenter at family business events focusing on my experience as a NextGen and how the family business has been integral to my personal and professional development.”
Eliza’s father, Frank H. Foster, managing partner of the Gideon Hixon Fund, says of his daughter: “She represents the balance of service to the family, intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit that we have hoped to develop in our NextGen family members. She is exemplary of the Hixon family values and an inspiration to our younger family members, especially the young women.”
“Much of my family history has been built on taking risks and working together to build successful businesses,” Eliza says. “I am the sixth generation of Hixon family members to continue this mission and hope to follow in those footsteps with a dream of using my family training to become a successful entrepreneur in my own right before returning to serve the family in a leadership role.
“Our family has a significant commitment to the development and training of our NextGen members, and through these programs I have become very close with my peer group of cousins, the generations above me, the non-family management and our younger family members. As we head into our seventh generation, I aspire to have a significant role in continuing this amazing story and leading the legacy for generations to come — hopefully as the first woman chairperson!”