What Does It Take to Be an Exceptional Family Business CEO?

In a session moderated by Brooke Anderson and Jeffrey Kane of BDO, Mariah Weyland Gratz, CEO of Weyland Ventures; Robert Underbrink, president and CEO of King Ranch Inc.; and Todd Schurz, president and CEO of Schurz Communications, Inc., will offer insights into what it takes to achieve true leadership success.

In our November/December 2020 edition, Family Business Magazine recognizes a diverse group of family business CEOs for their exceptional leadership. To complement this special feature, we asked three of the CEOs to join us for a webinar discussion on the unique challenges and opportunities in leading a family business.

In a session moderated by Brooke Anderson and Jeffrey Kane of BDO, Mariah Weyland Gratz, CEO of Weyland Ventures; Robert Underbrink, president and CEO of King Ranch, Inc.; and Todd Schurz, president and CEO of Schurz Communications, Inc., will address the following questions and respond to audience questions and comments:

• What are the characteristics required to be a successful CEO of a family-owned business?
• What makes family businesses different to lead than other types of businesses?
• What governance systems do you rely on for both the family and the business?
• What do you wish you had known before you took your present position?
• What advice do you have for your eventual successor? How should he/she prepare for family business leadership?

If you are the CEO of a family-owned business or aspire to lead your family company, this webinar will offer insights into what it takes to achieve true leadership success.

Family Business Magazine’s “Family Business CEOs To Watch” is made possible through the sponsorship of BDO.

Mariah Weyland Gratz

CEO, Weyland Ventures

Mariah, the CEO of Weyland Ventures, was born and raised in Louisville, KY.  After studying biomedical engineering at Washington University in St. Louis and Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine in London, England, Mariah worked in medical device product development at ABIOMED, Inc for six years.  However, in April 2009 she moved back to Louisville to go to work in her father’s business and apply her product development skills to a new product… real estate. Originally responsible for leading a cross-functional development team in the planning, design, and construction of urban real estate development projects, Mariah has held leadership positions in various departments of the organization. Mariah completed her MBA in August 2016 at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Mariah and her husband Eric reside in the Highlands neighborhood in Louisville with their 2 children. A lifelong athlete, Mariah enjoys staying active. She also serves on several community boards, including the Louisville Downtown Management District and the Patty and Mildred Hill Happy Birthday Park Board.

Weyland Ventures is a multi-disciplinary real estate development firm known for creating unique mixed-use properties in urban areas across the nation. Considered experts in the use of historic tax credits, new market credits and other layered financing methods the company is able to tackle tough projects that typically wouldn’t be considered viable to other firms.

Robert Underbrink

President & CEO, King Ranch, Inc.

Robert J. Underbrink graduated in 1983 from Texas A&M University-Kingsville where he received a Bachelor of Science in agriculture (cum laude). Robert was hired by King Ranch, Inc. in 1984 as a management trainee and traveled to various operations in the United States and throughout South America and Australia. In 1987, he assumed the responsibility as general manager of Florida operations. As part of an expansion of the Florida operations, King Ranch, Inc., acquired citrus groves in 1994. The board of directors of King Ranch, Inc. appointed Robert as vice president of farming operations in June 1998. He was then appointed as senior vice president in March 2008 and in June 2010, was appointed as president/CEO, as well as a director. He also currently serves as a director of Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership, the nation’s largest citrus grower, where he previously served as president and CEO from 1999 to 2005. Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership is owned and managed by King Ranch Inc.

Todd Schurz

President & CEO, Schurz Communications

Todd F. Schurz has served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Schurz Communications, Inc. since July 1, 2007. Schurz Communications, Inc. (SCI) is a diversified, fifth-generation, privately-owned media, broadband and cloud commu-nications company. Geographically, SCI has a presence in Arizona, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Australia and England.

Schurz joined Schurz Communications Inc. in 1989 and has served in a number of roles, including managing publishing and television operations. He was born in San Francisco, Calif., graduated from Brown University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Economics, and later received his Master of Business Administration in 1989 from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with majors in marketing and manage-ment.

Schurz currently serves on the boards of the Herschend Enterprises as lead independent director, News Media Alliance, American Press Institute, Beacon Health Foundation, and Uni-versity of Notre Dame College of Arts & Letters advisory council. He has served on the boards of the CBS Television Network Affiliates Association, Hoosier State Press Association’s Foun-dation (also a past president), and Mutual Insurance Company Limited. He is a former Chair of the Memorial Hospital board, the Chamber of Commerce of St. Joseph County, the Poynter In-stitute’s National Advisory Board, and the coordinating committee for the Regional Approach to Progress. He has served on numerous other community organization boards, including United Way, Project Future and the Community Foundation.

Brooke Anderson

National Managing Principal, Private Client Services, BDO

Brooke has more than 15 years of experience serving high net worth individuals, their families, family offices, C-suite executives and others with complex tax and financial structures. Her expertise centers on trust administration, fiduciary responsibility, gift taxation, generation skipping transfer taxation and estate taxation and planning. Brooke is skilled in working alongside the clients’ trusted advisors and focusing on assessing current situations, identifying risks and proposing solutions to achieve the most optimal results.

Currently, Brooke leads the firm’s Private Client Services national practice where she is responsible for the strategic growth and operations of the practice. During her career at BDO, she also led the Pittsburgh market as Office Managing Principal of the Tax Practice for several years. Concurrently, she served as the Central Region Private Client Service Leader where she assisted the national leadership team over the last five years in the development of the practice.

Brooke is a current member and Pittsburgh Board Member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) which is a global leadership community of chief executives.

Jeffrey Kane

Chair, Global Private Client Services Centre of Excellence, BDO

Jeff has over 40 years of experience providing financial and tax advice to high net worth individuals and their families as well as executives of public companies. For over 15 years, he was also the outside CFO to a Forbes 200 family as well as advising them on their income and estate tax matters.

During his career, Jeff has also been the tax advisor to businesses from start-ups and PE owned enterprises, to multi-national, multi-billion dollar companies in manufacturing, retail, real estate, and other industries.

Prior to joining BDO, Jeff led tax practices and offices in the Mid-West for Arthur Andersen and Grant Thornton, as well as being a partner in the Private Client Service group of RubinBrown in St. Louis. He is a member of the Business School Dean’s Advisory Board of the University of Detroit-Mercy and has served on many civic boards in the cities in which he has lived.

David Shaw

Publishing Director, Family Business Magazine

David Shaw is the publishing director for MLR Media. He also co-founded and serves as conference director of the Transitions conferences, the Private Company Governance Summit and Family Business Legacy. David writes frequently on governance issues for public and private companies, and develops and maintains close relationships with multi-generational family-owned businesses. He is married, with two grown children.