Presenter Biographies

Jacob Ball
Founder and CEO of Children's Book Store

Jacob is a tireless advocate for childhood literacy and juvenile literature. He is the Founder and CEO of Children’s Bookstore and Reader Zone. Children’s Bookstore carries out innovative online book fairs for schools and non-profit organizations throughout the U.S. Reader Zone is a SaaS product that schools and libraries use to host reading programs. Launched in 2019, Reader Zone has more than 100,000 users in 23 countries.

He helps educational organizations build and deploy highly effective literacy programs. He also advises school systems and educational organizations throughout the U.S. regarding how to best allocate resources for literacy products.

Before starting Children’s Bookstore, Jacob's jobs were a professional speech writer, a press aide for a U.S. Senator, campaign manager for U.S. Senate and U.S. House campaigns and political consulting. Jacob left full-time politics in 2013 to run Children’s Bookstore.

Education and literacy advocacy organizations seek Jacob out to speak regarding building reading cultures within the home and school communities. He is a fifth-generation Idahoan and runs his businesses from offices above a Mexican restaurant in Meridian, Idaho. Jacob has a bachelor’s degree in International Relations and speaks Spanish fluently.

  Mercy Goddard
  Vice President and Family Member, Investment Resources Corporation

Mercy Goddard grew up in the family office industry as an active third generation family member. Following a brief stint working in government, Mercy officially joined her family office, Investment Resources Corporation, in 2018. Mercy first worked in the industry, for Family Office Exchange (FOX), as an intern in 2014, focusing on generational characteristics and interactions. Today, in addition to working in her own family’s office, Mercy continues to work with FOX as a part-time consultant. Mercy’s work with FOX focuses on generational characteristics, and family learning. Additionally, she has had the opportunity to work with FOX clients as they undergo the transition involved in bringing the next generation of decision makers to the table.

Mercy holds her B.A. from the University of Southern California (magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa), and her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame.
 

  Michael P. Hotz, CFA
  Vice President, Asset Consulting Group

Michael P. Hotz is an investment consultant who works with multi-generational ultra-wealthy families.  In his role as their consultant, Mike helps his clients build investment programs that are designed to meet their return and risk objectives and reflect their personal goals and values.  Prior to his role as consultant, Mike spent more than seven years as a research analyst at ACG evaluating private equity and real estate strategies.   Before joining ACG in 2010, Mike was a Manager in KPMG’s Transaction Services group specializing in financial and operational due diligence for private equity firms.  Mike received a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance from the Kelly School of Business at Indiana University.  He is a holder of the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Society of St. Louis and the CFA Institute.    

  Bill Lyons
  Senior Director of the Institute for Family Culture, Abbot Downing

Bill Lyons is a senior director of the Institute for Family Culture, Bill works with families to clarify their vision and values, understand their historical legacy in the context of forward-looking planning, and align communication, education, mentoring, and family governance to help enhance their impact on family well-being, business objectives, and  philanthropic endeavors. Bill also helps family and business leaders develop transition and legacy plans that include engaging the rising generation and other inheritors in the development of their financial and legal literacy as future wealth owners and beneficiaries.

Prior to joining Abbot Downing, Bill was an independent consultant to entrepreneurs, family leaders, philanthropists, and family offices. He served in senior leadership roles with a single family office, the multifamily office Asset Management Advisors, and the philanthropic advisory firm Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors. He also served as a trustee and advisor to several foundations, trusts, and donor collaboratives.  

Bill is a graduate of Boston College, Georgetown University Law Center, and has a masters in Family Studies from Loyola University of Chicago. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective as well as experience working with diverse leaders from deeply held identity-and faith-based communities to help individuals and families leverage their unique perspectives when working on generational succession, leadership development, and high impact systems change. Bill is co-chair of the Nexus Working Group on Family Prosperity and has been a speaker at the Council on Foundations, Attorneys for Family Business, Family Firm Institute, Creating Change Through Family Philanthropy, and the FRA Family Office Symposium. Bill taught a course on family philanthropy as an adjunct professor at New York University and he provided editorial assistance to James E. Hughes, Jr. for the second edition of his classic book, Family Wealth.

 

  Stockton Rush
  Founder & CEO, OceanGate Inc

Stockton Rush founded and leads, OceanGate Inc. is dedicated to opening the oceans to direct human observation and exploration through the development of state-of-the-art 5-person submersibles. For most of his life Stockton planned to become an astronaut. He obtained his BSE in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University with this goal in mind and went on to join the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer on the F-15 program. He then went to U.C Berkeley Hass Business School and worked in venture capital and private equity investing still with the hope of one day going to space. Along the way, he realized that being among the first humans to descend to the ocean depths on our own planet and opening those oceans to exploration is an equally compelling and important challenge. He pivoted to ocean exploration by first building his own 2-person submarine in 2006, and then founding OceanGate in 2009, with the goal of expanding access to the deep ocean by marrying adventurers like himself with researchers and scientists. This hybrid business model is designed to create a self-sustaining business which also makes meaningful contributions to deep sea science and technology. 

Stockton conducts all significant test dives of OceanGate’s submersibles as well as the first dives on all new dive sites. Throughout 2019, he piloted a series of test dives of Titan, culminating in a solo dive to 4000 meters. In 2021, he will pilot OceanGate’s Titan submersible on its inaugural Titanic Survey Expedition, taking citizen explorers 3,800 meters below the surface of the North Atlantic to the wreck site of the RMS Titanic. Throughout this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the citizen explorers, known as Mission Specialists, will play an active role in digitally documenting and preserving the historic site.

Stockton has served on the Boards of several small businesses and The Museum of Flight in Seattle. He maintains and flies a Glasair III high performance airplane that he built from a kit in 1989.

FOX Presenters

  Heather Abramson
  Director Relationship Manager, Family Office Exchange

Heather Abramson is the Director, Relationship Manager for Family Office Exchange (FOX). In her role, Heather works with business-owning family members to understand their objectives and provides guidance to help address their unique needs through the resources available at FOX. Heather also runs FOX’s Rising Gen Community, which is designed to provide next-generation family members an opportunity to learn, share experiences, and develop skills as future leaders. Heather has held multiple roles at FOX including membership development.

Before joining FOX in 2008, Heather served as Strategic Marketing and Events Manager at Aon Corporation. While at Aon, Heather planned and executed more than 100 large-scale events and created the marketing and project execution for Aon’s South America Division. Earlier in her career, she worked on Capitol Hill for a U.S. senator and in the foreign policy department at a lobbying organization. She also has previous experience working in a Chicago-based family office.

Heather has a B.A. degree in Journalism, Public Relations, and Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She graduated with honors from DePaul University with an M.A. in Organizational and Multi-cultural Communications.

  Mindy Kalinowski Earley, CMP, CFBA
  Chief Learning Officer, ​FOX Family Learning Center ^TM, Family Office Exchange

Mindy Earley is Chief Learning Officer for Family Office Exchange (FOX). In her role, she works to foster integrated learning programs for enterprise families and is responsible for developing the family learning community. She also provides support to the Family Learning and Experience Council and FOX Family Learning Network (FLN). Mindy is inspired by helping people learn, grow, and discover the way that they will make personal and productive contributions by using their strengths and talents. ​
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Mindy has held various roles in small and large family offices and has been responsible for creating and stewarding professional learning networks in support of human and intellectual capital. She has designed learning experiences that increase the knowledge base and enhance the life path of individuals while providing personalized support and coaching to help them meet their goals. As a Certified Meeting Professional with a certificate in Family Business Advising, she enjoys helping families and rising generation members navigate the unique world of enterprise family and family relationships by understanding that responsibility and intention pave a path to personal achievement and satisfaction.​

  Kara Murphy
  Family Learning Program Manager, Family Office Exchange

Kara Murphy is the Family Learning Program Manager for Family Office Exchange. In her role, she creates opportunities for Rising Gen members at FOX to problem-solve, share their experiences with peers, and equip themselves with all the tools they need to be successful in their enterprise family.

Kara is a graduate of Tulane University, where she received her BA in English and Music Technology. After college, she served as a Teach for America Corps Member within Chicago Public Schools, teaching high school English and coaching a traveling Spoken Word team. She returned to the Crescent City a few years later to broaden her experience in urban education. While teaching in New Orleans, she continued to develop her skillset with best pedagogical practice and design thinking through rigorous training programs and fellowships. She is looking forward to marrying her love for high-tech learning tools and curriculum planning as she seeks to build out informative and engaging programming for the Rising Generation.