Principal, CFAR
Debbie Bing is a member of CFAR's next generation of leaders. She heads up CFAR's Boston office and is a member of CFAR's Board of Directors. She also co-leads the firm's Family and Owner-Led Business practice group. Debbie's specialty is helping family businesses and philanthropies create leadership, strategic, and continuity plans that bridge the interests of family, business (when an operating company is in the mix), and its owners, across generations. Debbie works with senior and next-generation family members to design governance structures and forums that engage family members, guided by shared goals for the entire family enterprise. Debbie views conflict as a useful starting point for a productive exchange about organizational priorities and performance. She helps business leaders and executive teams build collaborative approaches to their most pressing challenges, particularly when managing the multiple pressures of mission, performance, culture, competencies, and competition.
She is an experienced speaker and has presented to many owner-led and family business audiences, including the Family Firm Institute, the Council on Foundations Philanthropy Conference, and the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (from which she won The Bridger Award in 2008 for her paper “Crowding Out the Space: The Weakness of a Strong Leader”). As a second-generation owner of CFAR, she draws on personal experience in working through the dilemmas of strategy and succession. Debbie holds a Master of Arts in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.