Draft:Christina Wing

Christina Rodgers Wing is a senior lecturer in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at Harvard Business School, focusing her research primarily on topics surrounding family businesses, family offices and other family enterprises. Wing’s real-world insight and knowledge come from her 30-year career working across various roles in finance and general management, including a role as President and CEO of a single-family office for an American billionaire and his family. Wing is also founder of Wingspan Legacy Partners, an advisory firm for family and founder-owned businesses and family offices.

Early Life

Wing was born in Ozark, Alabama, on June 14, 1971, while her father was stationed at Fort Novosel (then known as Fort Rucker). After moving numerous times due to her father’s career, Wing graduated from McCullough High School in The Woodlands, Texas. Wing then earned her Bachelors in Business Administration at Southern Methodist University with a double major in Finance and Organizational Business Behaviour and Policy in Dallas, Texas, before starting her career in finance in New York City. Wing credits her father – a “serial entrepreneur” – with inspiring her interest in and passion for founder and family-owned businesses.

Career

A graduate of Harvard Business School (HBS), Wing joined their faculty in 2016 where she teaches in the Technology and Operations Management Unit. She designed a course titled “Demystifying the Family Enterprise,” in which she teaches MBA students about family dynamics, operating companies, family offices and legacy-building opportunities. She is the chair of HBS’ Families in Business executive education program, co-chairs the Rising Generation program, and is on the faculty of the Family Office Wealth executive education program. She often teaches internationally in the HBS /Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) programs.

Earlier in her career at HBS, Wing also taught introductory courses on Technology Operations Management and Leadership and Corporate Accountability. She delivers keynote speeches on topics related to global family businesses, leadership, and navigating different life stages. She is also frequently interviewed and published in third-party publications, including Harvard Business Review, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Crain Currency, Family Business Magazine, and Family Wealth Report, amongst others. The founder of Wingspan Legacy Partners, Wing and her team help founders and families build and preserve their legacies while maximizing family unity, business success, and societal impact. Prior to her time at HBS and Wingspan, Wing served as President and CEO of a family office where she oversaw a team of people and assets within real estate, art, collectibles, private investments, and philanthropic activities. After business school, Wing worked in finance and operations at a startup venture formed by several of her classmates. Her career began in equities and energy investment banking at Goldman Sachs and Kidder, Peabody.

Wing is an experienced board member and is currently an advisor on several boards. She is a Senior Advisor at Crestview Partners, a private equity firm focused on the middle-market. She is also an advisor to F3 Partners, a fund focused on investing in family businesses; Northrim Horizon, a private investment firm with a long-term focus, and Corvias, a private infrastructure company.

Research

Wing’s research covers all facets of family businesses and family offices with a focus on governance structures, succession planning, family dynamics, operating companies, next generation education, family impact and philanthropy, leveraging societal power for good, and legacy-building. She is also focused on unlocking the topics that leaders and managers don’t talk about because they are considered taboo, and making it easier to facilitate those difficult conversations that are necessary for business transformation and acceleration, like succession and wealth, relationships, conflict, and more.

Wing has published many cases, including those on Sylvia’s Restaurant of Harlem, Boston Beer Company, Zamil Group Holding, Theranos, Thermax, Sopra Steria, and Bill Cummings, among others.

Speaking

Wing is frequently invited to speak on topics concerning the different chapters of life, difficult conversations, and enterprising families, including keynote addresses at the Taider Family Business Association Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, the Baltic Family Firm Institute Conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, the Institute for Family Governance Conference in Miami, as well as numerous YPO and HBS events around the world.

Awards

Wing received the GOOD Fellows award from the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute on October 9, 2023. Wing was honored, among eight other recipients, at their Family Office Roundtable (FORT) event in Dallas. The 2023 GOOD Fellow North America candidates were selected by previous GOOD Fellow winners for using their wealth and influence to benefit the greater good.

Philosophy on Family Office Dynamics

Wing has argued that every family office must have an explicit mission, which serves as the foundation for decision-making in the future and a guide for governance. This collective decision-making helps families keep their assets together within the family office which increases purchasing power and lowers costs. Furthermore, Wing says, a family office’s mission helps them build a team to think through and execute the exact kind of business they are building.

Philosophy on Succession

Succession planning is a top challenge facing today’s family enterprises—and those that ignore it do so at their own peril, according to Wing. She has argued that if you don’t think succession is important, then you don’t believe in the evolution of a business. Succession planning with the rising generation is triggering the need for tough conversations about shifts in strategy and purpose. While the older generation typically sees investing and philanthropy as separate, the rising generation wants to combine doing good with making money.

Philosophy on Governance

Like succession, in any enterprise, governance is critical to long-term success. But, as Wing has argued, the governance of a family enterprise is even more complicated. The lack of effective governance can lead to misaligned decisions, conflicts, and potential erosion of both the family’s and the business’ legacy.

Philosophy on Philanthropy

Wing has discussed how wealthy families are shifting their approach to philanthropy as the current generation of owners gives way to the next, in a process often called “The Great Wealth Transfer.” Wing has written cases involving families that want to move beyond an approach to giving that involves bequeathing of funds toward one in which family offices and enterprises are directly involved in planning, executing, and measuring programs to achieve social impact. She says this represents a fusion of philanthropy and investment strategy in the use of key metrics and concrete goals to guide family giving.

Personal Life

Wing lives near Boston. She married Thomas “Tad” O’Donnell 3^rd in 1999, and they have three children and three dogs. Wing is an avid golfer and skier.