Message from the Director
Keanon Alderson, MBA, PhD
Director, Family Business Center, and Professor of Management
With over 17 years as a second-generation family business working in my family business, I'm very familiar with the benefits and challenges that come with the territory. Because of this experience, my passion is to help family businesses thrive.
My scholarly research is on family businesses and I've written two textbooks on the subject. I've written numerous articles about family dynamics, conflict mitigation, and family business governance. When not teaching classes, I perform research on family-owned businesses, provide workshops and seminars, and advise family firms.
of employers in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario MSA* are family-owned businesses, the highest percentage of family-owned businesses across all MSAs in the nation.
*Metropolitan Statistical Area. Source: U.S. Census Annual Survey of Entrepreneurship 2016. There are 384 MSAs in the U.S..
The Family Business Center is affiliated with the Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business at California Baptist University (CBU), where I am a professor of Business. I founded a program here at CBU where Business Administration students can add a concentration in Family Business Studies so that they are more prepared to add value to their family business and develop into eventual successors.
I'm available to discuss your experiences in your family business and whether membership in the Family Business Center may be right for you.
Keanon
Keanon Alderson, MBA, PhD
Professor of Business, the Dr. Robert K. Jabs School of Business
Here is my article in the Journal of Family Business Management entitled "Conflict management and resolution in family-owned businesses."