Our Team — Pacific Family Business Institute: Family Business Consulting
Expert Guidance for Family Businesses
Family businesses require expert guidance to navigate the complexities of combining family and business concerns. Our team of experienced family business consultants provides tailored solutions to help family businesses achieve long-term success. We understand the unique challenges faced by family businesses, including succession planning, leadership development, and family dynamics. Our expert guidance helps family businesses build a strong foundation for future growth and prosperity.
At the Pacific Family Business Institute, we recognize that each family business is unique, with its own set of challenges and opportunities. Our consultants work closely with family business owners to develop customized strategies that address their specific needs. Whether it’s preparing the next generation for leadership roles or resolving conflicts that arise from family relationships, our goal is to ensure the continuity and success of the business for generations to come.
Rich Simmonds · Co-Director
For more than 25 years, Rich Simmonds has been working with family businesses and their advisors. Family governance and conflict resolution are key areas of his expertise. Continuity planning is a crucial aspect of his work, ensuring a unified vision for future generations and the long-term success of the business. As a Seattle-based family business consultant, he assists Northwest family-owned businesses in the development of next-generation family members, development of their business and family boards, and transitioning from one generation to the next.
Rich is involved with the family business initiatives at Gonzaga University and the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Board of Central Washington University. He is on the boards of several Northwest family-owned businesses and the Family Enterprise Research Council, an international nonprofit organization that conducts and promotes family business research. In the past, he served on the advisory board of the Austin Family Business Program at Oregon State University.
In 1995, Rich cofounded Tyee Asset Strategies, a company that grew from start up to $4 billion in assets. Tyee was a wealth management company located in Seattle, Washington. He served as Tyee’s Chairman until 2004, when it was acquired by Laird Norton Company, a seventh-generation family business. Rich earned his degrees in marketing and finance from Central Washington University.
Mark T. Green, Ph.D. · Co-Director
Mark T. Green is an internationally known family business consultant, speaker, author, educator, and researcher. Mark leads his own family business consulting firm and the co-founder of the Pacific Family Business Institute.
His expert counsel is sought by companies throughout the world on family business issues such as succession, governance, strategy, conflict resolution, and leadership. He teaches executive education programs, workshops, seminars, and academic courses for family businesses and professionals that serve family enterprises.
An accomplished professional speaker, Mark has given presentations throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Australia, and New Zealand. He has been a keynote or featured speaker at over 400 conferences, trade shows, continuing education programs, executive education programs, workshops, and industry meetings.
Mark often serves as a source for the media on stories about family businesses. He has been quoted in various well-known print and broadcast media including The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Inc., Forbes, MSNBC, The Seattle Times, The Denver Post, The Oregonian, and many others.
Mark is also a regular contributor to various newspapers, magazines, and industry trade publications and serves as an advisor to radio and TV programs with family business themes. In addition, he has authored or co-authored numerous articles for academic journals, book chapters, and book reviews covering topics from family business, entrepreneurship, management, economics, and public policy.
Mark’s book, Inside the Multi-Generational Family Business, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2011, was the first to explore how generational differences create new challenges for family businesses when several unique generations converge as owners, managers, employees, and shareholders.
Before founding his family business consultancy, Mark was a principal with The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc. Mark also served as director of the Austin Family Business Program, as well as the A.E. Coleman Professor of Family Business. He was the founder and director of the Austin Entrepreneurship Program at Oregon State University’s College of Business, and the co-founder of the Family Enterprise Research Conference (FERC). Mark is currently teaching family business and conducting research for the University of Vermont and the University of Washington.
Mark earned his Ph.D. in economics and political science, and an M.A. in political economy from Claremont Graduate University. He holds an MBA from Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Cal Poly Pomona.
Mark continues and has served on the board of directors for many family businesses and non-profit organizations. He is very active in the arts, music, and civic activities and is the Co-Founder of Make Music Day Salem. He enjoys life in Salem, Oregon, with his wife, Karen, and daughter, Danielle, in their own family business, RiverCity Rock Star Academy.
Ron Dohr, Ph.D. · Co-Director, emeritus
Ron Dohr is a seasoned business consultant and family business advisor with more than 30 years of proven success helping businesses with all aspects of people and organizational effectiveness. As an experienced business psychologist, university professor, company senior executive, and long-time family business advisor, Ron has the ability to quickly uncover the root causes of problems facing clients and facilitate solutions that get to immediate results. He has consulted with all types and sizes of closely held businesses in various industries and stages of the business life cycle.
He is regionally recognized in the Pacific Northwest in the field of family business, and advises business owner clients on a wide range of topics including succession planning, governance, family dynamics, business transition and perpetuating family legacy.
Prior to starting his own consulting practice, Ron has held executive-level and consulting positions at Moss Adams, UTILX, Weyerhaeuser, NC Caterpillar, Moore Financial Group, and Bank of America. Ron has taught numerous graduate-level classes at Pacific Lutheran University, Central Washington University, and Seattle University. He is a Certified Mediator and Board Member of the Pierce County Center for Dispute Resolution and is an active member of the Family Firm Institute, Estate Planning Council of Seattle and a co-founding member of Northwest Family Business Advisors.
In 2023, Ron transitioned to retirement, leaving PFBI in Rich and Mark’s capable hands. He serves today as an emeritus member of the PFBI founding team.
Robert Evert, Ph.D. · Senior Advisor
Dr. Rob Evert is a Senior Advisor with the Pacific Family Business Institute (PFBI). He is passionate about helping family business owners, family members, management, and employees unlock the long-term potential of their enterprises. He serves as a Clinical Business Professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is a highly accomplished business, academic, and military leader with over two decades of delivering high-value impact to organizations as a business consultant and entrepreneurship scholar. Before joining PFBI, Rob served as a family business consultant with a family business consulting firm.and an entrepreneurship professor in higher education, researching and publishing on various family business topics related to governance, strategy, conflict resolution and leadership. His scholarly work can be found in such high-quality outlets as Family Business Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Research, and Strategic Organization.
As a highly sought-after expert on family firms, Rob's engagement in the academic and professional community also includes numerous presentations on family businesses and entrepreneurship delivered across the United States, the Caribbean, and Europe. He is a Dale Carnegie Certified Trainer and serves on the Family Business Review editorial board. He earned his Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Texas Tech University and holds an MBA from the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and his bachelor’s degree from the United States Air Force Academy.