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The Family Office Association Audio Series; Volume X

The Value of Internal HR for SFOsCulture & Talent Wins with guest Lyn Christensen

22 Audio Transcript in the FOA Audio Series. Lyn Christiansen | © 2015 Family Office Association and Angelo J. Robles

FOA Audio Series Volume XThe Value of Internal HR, or HR Consultancy, for

Single Family Offices: Culture and Talent Wins with Lyn Christensen

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FOA Audio Series Volume X: The Value of Internal HR, or HR Consultancy, for Single Family Offices: Culture and Talent Wins with Lyn Christensen

Lyn Christensen


Lyn Christensen is a unique organizational behavior and human resources professional who has helped grow and develop top technology companies, leaders and founders. Her focus has been high growth start-ups and she’s been a trusted advisor to CEOs and management teams, working with executive hiring and training, mergers and integrations, as well as culture building, HR strategy and recruiting programs.

Lyn has a straight-forward and sincere style while focusing on specific recommendations and actions that create a stronger working environment and higher returns to the business. She has created innovative programs that drive bottom line results by keeping recruiting costs down while attracting and retaining the best talent. She has also been able to develop leaders and help structure organizations for greater effectiveness.

As an HR leader, Lyn’s career took off rapidly due to her ability to gain trust and credibility amongst executive teams along with her track record of affecting positive change. She is also well known for her skills in recognizing and partnering for tangible business solutions.

Most recently, Lyn has been an organizational consultant and coach. She is regularly called upon by many kinds of businesses and leaders to help with executive coaching, organizational effectiveness, and people management.

Lyn graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a master’s degree in Organizational Development and received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology with honors from Brigham Young University.

Contact Lyn: [email protected] In: linkedin.com/in/lynchristensen



Angelo J. Robles

Angelo J. Robles is Founder and CEO of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Family Office Association (FOA), a global membership organization that delivers private educational and networking opportunities, proprietary research, and access to salient thought leadership to multiple generations of wealthy families and the professionals who run their single-family offices.

A member of the Princeton Council on Family Offices and the NYU Stern Family Office Council, Mr. Robles has a long record of leadership positions at top financial-service companies, including UBS. Before launching FOA, he founded and ran several successful entrepreneurial ventures: He served as President of the New England chapter of the Hedge Fund Association, and pioneered online retirement planning for Fortune 1000 executives with two Internet startups - 401KRollover.com and IRARollovers.com.

Author of several books and articles, Mr. Robles has appeared on Bloomberg Television and Radio, and has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Thompson Reuters, Institutional Investor, Opalesque, Registered Rep, HFM Week, Investment News, EurekaHedge, The Luxury Institute, Private Asset Management, The Greenwich Times and many other media outlets.

Contact: [email protected] (203) 570.2898

Angelo Robles: Hello, everyone. I’m Angelo Robles, founder and CEO of Family Office Association. I am joined today by Lyn Christensen, HR consultant, Bay Shore Global. Lyn, how are you?

Lyn Christensen: I am doing well, thank you.

Angelo Robles: Pleasure to have you on the call today. Lyn is really truly one of the thought leaders, great thinkers with a different perspective on the concept of culture, talent, and effectively HR services inside a single family office. When a newer family is creating an SFO, or even an existing family that may be transitioning or in a succession plan, the opportunity obviously of creating the right legal structure, accounting, technology, all things that are very important, and often overlooked and especially for larger families with great complexities. Perhaps the most important is understanding the family’s culture and bringing on the right people using a phrase from Jim Collin’s the great author, “You want to get the right people on the bus, and you want to set them in the right seat.”

So, I am always amazed, Lyn, at how many families build these amazing businesses that they put so much effort, and time, and have the best of the best, yet when it comes to their single family office, which is managing their legacy, their capital, potentially for generations to come, it does not seem to quite have that same dedication in terms of desiring to bring on the very best in talent. Do you have any opinions as to why?

Lyn Christensen: Well, in my experience, they are somewhat conflicted about staff for their personal life. When it is for their business, they are very clear, but for some reason they treat their personal lives differently. In some ways, because it is personal, it is more meaningful. It has a bigger impact on them and their families. But, I have seen that they have a tendency to shortcut the hiring process and kind of

go with someone maybe they know, or a friend, or especially if they are just getting started go with someone that does not go through a formal process of being recruited and hired. It can end up leading to issues



I am always amazed at how many families build these amazing businesses...and have the best of the best, yet when it comes to their single family office...they do not seem to quite have that same dedication in terms of desiring to bring on the very best in talent.

down the road where maybe that person does not have the right skills. I mean it is to your point, are they in the right seat? Do they have the right skills, and is it the right fit for the company, and can they grow with the family?

So, there are a lot of intentional decisions that if you shortcut up front, you end up learning that you pay on the backend. And I think spending a little time thinking about that before you launch into hiring, it can go a long way.

Angelo Robles: Or a family looking to build, or even again, to reconfigure an existing single family office, especially a larger family. So, possibly our topic today is a little bit more narrow to larger families that

potentially have the resources and interest in seeing the value of their culture and talent of bringing in-house a HR professional, or perhaps working with someone like yourself as a consultant. That is not discounting the tremendous value that recruiters bring and certainly their input, and the process could certainly be of value as well.

But, that truly makes sense. I mean now we are talking about a family that is actually hiring top-level talent internally to run HR, and to have a system in place to bring in top-level talent into the family, and, again, and something that I describe that in their legacy and their capital, it cannot get more important than that. In terms of the process, especially of bringing in someone who is a C-level, a CEO, a CIO in the family office, a CFO. Especially if they are using a consultant or have internal HR, I am assuming the family, no matter how big they are, is going to be involved in the process, maybe not the initial process, but the process of feeling comfortable and approving. Because they are going to have to work with the C-level executive. How frequently do you see their engagement in the process?

Lyn Christensen: Yes, anyone that is a direct report, they want input. And in fact, even in the families I have worked with, they want to approve

all hires. They get less involved in the process the further removed from the direct report they are. But, they care a lot. I think the issue is defining up-front what the need is, because I think that is where sometimes it is hard to predict and things evolve. But, finding people that can grow with them, finding people that have the right cultural

Audio Transcript in the FOA Audio Series. Lyn Christiansen | © 2015 Family Office Association and Angelo J. Robles6

Perhaps the most important is understanding the family’s culture and bringing on the right people using a phrase from Jim Collins the great author, “You want to get the right people on the bus, and you want to sit them in the right seat.”



values and the skill set, not one or the other. And investing in, it is a bit of a time investment. And this is for all companies. They have to make that, nobody will tell you that they are not going to value recruiting and spend time on it, but sometimes their actions tell you that, and they do not want to interview a bunch of candidates. But, that is really how you get to the best decision is to be more thorough, to have a well-defined

job description. And I do not mean that in a formal way. I just mean that you know what you are looking for, what matters to you. It could be five things but you are really clear about what those five things are.

So, if you do that upfront, you will get a much better outcome. And, I think sometimes people just they want it to be easier and quicker. And especially when they are busy, they have busy lives. And they want this to kind of magically work. But, it is so personal, and I think that especially when you look at tenure and family offices, these people could be with you for a long, long time. It is a very important, I mean I think the people are the most important aspect.

Angelo Robles: Absolutely, and when you get below the C-level, but still everyone is important to maintaining culture, getting the job done, what is the saying about a fence is only as strong as its weakest link. How engaged should family members be for levels below the C-level? Should it only be in the hands of HR? Should the C-level executives have a hand in the decisions of those they are going to work with below

them in the office or should the family be actively engaged in that process as well?

Lyn Christensen: I believe that the C-level staff should

be handling the hiring below them, for the most part, certainly with help from any kind of resources they need, recruiters, HR. I do think that there are some very personal hires like nannies, chefs, things that are going to touch the family in a very personal way that they probably will want to get involved with, but I think that you also have to empower your C-level folks, or you will not get the best in that group either. They need to feel like owners, and I think in order to do that, they need to feel like they have decision-making abilities.

So, if the family holds too tightly to all of the decision-making, then they do not really need a true C-level person running the

C-level staff should be handling the hiring below them...you have to empower your C-level folks...they need to feel like owners, and I think in order to do that, they need to feel like they have decision-making abilities.



office.

Angelo Robles: Yes, certainly interesting point. In our prior conversations, I had a chance to note that certainly my interest in sports, and I used a little bit of a sports analogy, that when a team, in practically any sport is drafting, usually what we always hear is draft the best talent available first as opposed to sometimes specifically a need. Internally, or as a consultant in your case, would you recommend that a family be open-minded potentially to a candidate that may not be the most perfect fit for a specific position, but shows creativity and other aspects that could make them a good hire overall?

Lyn Christensen: I absolutely live by that. I started out in technology companies and that is what they live by is you get a person who has great qualities you are looking for and great motivation because jobs change, inevitably they change. And if you can get someone who has got core values you can see and abilities, I think you invest in that over just straight skills that might come with a trade-off of culture fit or personality fit.

I had a woman recently that fit great at her

job, really smart, but very negative, and it had a huge impact on the office because she was just quick to complain, quick to find fault, and she saw that as totally separate from her job, her output. And I do not see that. I see it as part of the package. So, I think that, again, thinking about your culture and what values you would like to see in your employees, in addition to their skills, it will pay off.

Angelo Robles: Indeed. In our prior conversations as well, we mentioned things, and I know in your state in California in some ways it could even be a little bit more strict, you want to have the right culture. You want to bring the right people onboard. And, again, perhaps both of us are going to agree that that may for some families

be more important than anything. You are going to be working with these people. They are integral to your legacy and your wealth, but, yet, it is amazing, and I know it involves legal as well, how many family offices and perhaps especially newer ones, you think they would have an employee handbook, a

Get a person who has great qualities you are looking for and great motivation because jobs change and if you can get someone who has got core values you can see and abilities, I think you invest in that over straight skills that might come with a tradeoff of culture fit or personality fit.



policy and procedures manual, an employee agreement, NDA’s, non-disclosures, privacy agreement, a sexual harassment policy. But, do many single family offices that you see being created have the level of detail that is more common in Fortune 500 companies?

Lyn Christensen: They do have it. They are probably not as disciplined as the Fortune 500. But, the flip side is if they have a bad experience, they will probably get more focused on that. They do have it. Although my personal experience is that that is not the letter of the law is not what gets you in trouble, it is usually the way employees feel about a situation, however it is handled. And you can have those things to protect you, but I feel that if employees, if they feel loyal, if they feel treated well, if they feel that they are empowered and they have been, you will have far fewer employer relations issues.

People can really come after you for anything. It does not have to rational. It does not have to be letter of the law and to have your bases covered. But, it is also good to think about building a culture where you minimize your risk and that you are in touch with employee sentiment. And that is part of why I was brought on is to be that person to monitor and be in touch with what is going on with employees. And I think that the family cannot do that. They might be able to but it is unlikely.

So, having someone to look at that, and it might be your C-level staff that has that ability, but someone needs to be focused on both the letter of the law and then the spirit of the law, which is treating people well.

Angelo Robles: And I know at larger companies, and I have worked for a couple of Fortune 500 companies, there were specific procedures for an employee that may not have felt comfortable in a given scenario talking to a superior and maybe that superior was also the problem. So, having someone, HR or more likely in most SFO’s, potentially and should be at minimum an HR consultant that could act as a little bit of an independent sounding board on issues, could at minimum nip issues in the bud.

Lyn Christensen: Correct. Yep, that is the goal.

Angelo Robles: And, related to that, and perhaps a little more common in my backyard in more established SFO communities of Greenwich, Connecticut, of New York, Boston, Palm Beach, some families as they transition, often have poor succession planning and therefore effectively could unwind an SFO. The issue of severance. The opportunity for a family sometimes to do simply the right thing for a trusted and talented employee, but potentially either the legal thing in some



states, and the opportunity that maybe quell any issues of discord with disgruntled employees that may be let go for a variety of reasons, having, again, a structure of a severance agreement, I would think, would make a lot of sense.

Lyn Christensen: Yes, I am in favor of having something. The one caveat is if you have a policy, you have to follow it consistently. And then you cannot make special deals. But, I think that is fine, but you just have to go into it realizing that once you put a stake in the ground, then you have do not want to open yourself up to discrimination claims. So, it is nice to be transparent and then employees are not suspicious about did someone else get something better, and why am I getting this? And you can explain it very clearly. And it minimizes the tension when things are winding down.

Angelo Robles: Yes, speaking to the community that you are certainly very strong in, Silicon Valley, in Palo Alto, etc., and the surrounding communities, I think of companies like Apple, like Google and there are so many where right now if you are a developer, an engineer, you are almost writing your own ticket. But we liken that little bit to the SFO community. For a family

or an HR director or consultant within the family that is looking to build out and protect that family’s legacy, their heritage, their capital, you want to get the best of the best in terms of talent that fits within the framework and culture of the family. Would you go to war on compensation for the right talent if there were multiple competing offers?

Lyn Christensen: The short answer is yes, but I think the long answer is I look at things qualitatively. And if it is just about money, that makes me skeptical of a candidate. I want to know the reasons. If they had

multiple offers, what is compelling them one way or the other? I think that, again, it is selling them on the whole package that you are offering and being able to articulate the philosophy behind it, why you pay a certain way, offer certain benefits, a certain culture, lifestyle, whatever those things are. I think you can always find higher pay somewhere out there. I think people need to be sold on what is compelling about the family office or that particular family office.

So, I try not to make it just about dollars, although sometimes you have to match

Would you go to war on compensation for the right talent if there were multiple competing answers?



another offer or even sweeten it if you really want somebody.

Angelo Robles: From my perch on the East Coast, I think of companies like a Facebook, a Google and it appears like a cool place to work, the environment, the opportunity. Different than maybe the more conservative aspects on the East Coast, yet I know that community also is just so dedicated, very entrepreneurial, and it looks like it is 24/7. Is an SFO position, and I know we are being a little narrow to specifically that community, is it nine to five or is it effectively like I would picture a top employee? One of the companies I noted, it is whatever it needs to be.

Lyn Christensen: Yeah, it is whatever it needs to be and especially depending on if you are an accountant, you might not be so 24/7, but if you are touching personal needs or you are running the office, it does not stop. So, it is a fairly demanding world, and I think you have to offer the right incentives and motivations for people to have that lifestyle. And there are plenty. We do not typically have stock, which is a big factor for Google, and Apple, and the company, Facebook, the ones you mentioned. So, you have to look for other things that are compelling.

Angelo Robles: Yes, and that certainly could be a little bit of a challenge, but there

certainly is opportunity out there. Staying a little bit centric to northern California, the tech community, which I think that is certainly going to be a great interest to our audience as well. Here on the East Coast and many parts of the world, the CEO role in the family office could actually take many different directions. Sometimes it is a quote, unquote leader, and a manager, and a talent of people. Sometimes it is more of an investment role. Sometimes it may be more legal and accounting. From the community that we are talking about, and, again, it may be just like that, all over the place, but what are you seeing in often the CEO position?

Lyn Christensen: I think it is in charge of everything, and in some cases it is even beyond. If they are potentially launching some smaller businesses or thinking of doing something on the side that is not part of their primary business, I have seen CEO’s get involved in that. So, it can vary quite a bit but I do feel that the ones I know that have that title, they are in charge of everything.

Angelo Robles: Would there be potentially, and I guess this is good and bad, is that a little too much of a generalist and for larger family offices, is that C-level executive going to have more of a CFO, who is the accounting expert, the CIO on the investing side, is it almost to a degree that they really have to be a manager of people and a leader?



Lyn Christensen: Yes, if that is what the role is. And funny you say that because, I am sorry, finish your question.

Angelo Robles: No, please, please.

Lyn Christensen: Well, I just had a search for that very role and I was working with an outside recruiter. And as I was describing the role, she said to me, “This is a management role. This is not an expert in finance, or investments, or estate. This person is just going to manage all of those.” For a larger family officer, that is the case. I think if you were smaller maybe you could combine a few of those. And I have seen

smaller families do that, but I do think that especially for a family that is not actively engaged in running their family office, they need a leader. It cannot just be a figurehead. A lot of times they will put a CFO in that role. A lot of CFO’s do not like to manage people. So, you have to be very conscience of what you are doing.

I have seen them promote, one family promoted a controller because they liked

him as a controller. Well, he did not have the skills to manage people from different functions. He just never had any kind of background for that. So, I think you have got to be careful about what you are looking for and those unintended consequences. And people do not always, they do not always have the skills to manage people. People issues are challenging. They are not black and white.

Angelo Robles: No.

Lyn Christensen: That’s why many finance people struggle sometimes, anyway.

Angelo Robles: Yes, that has been a trend that we have noticed at least in the CEO role as well, obviously, in more of a CIO position. And in some, usually smaller family officers, actually the CIO role is more the anchor and the lead role in terms of the investing

perspective. And sometimes having that person have people under them or try to become a leader, it is just not natural or inherent to who they are.

Lyn Christensen: Right, but offices try to do that as well. So, I agree.

Angelo Robles: Yes, that appears to be a phenomenon all over the place.

People do not always have the skills to manage people. People issues are challenging...they are not black and white.



Lyn Christensen: Right, most of them want a two for one.

Angelo Robles: Yes, now we are getting to potentially the frugality, which is the subject that we spoke about earlier where you rarely see that in traditional businesses. But, unfortunately, in the family office sometimes that has been a bit of a trend. I do not know why.

Lyn Christensen: I think it is frugality, and I think there is a desire to have less staff, just in general. And so trying to get two for one just cuts down the total number.

Angelo Robles: That is true as well. Unique in California. You have multiple pockets of exceptional wealth. It is the wealthiest state in the country, yet very different. I guess a couple of hundred miles could make a big difference. Picking two areas, San Francisco (bay area) and LA. And I know we spoke before in the past, and I chuckle about some of the examples that you give. So, it’s a little newer areas of wealth as well, in Silicon Valley, a younger audience in terms of those who have had a liquidity event and perhaps sourcing the right talent that could be a good fit for them. You would think, maybe, staying local and instate for cultural reasons could make sense. But if you do not mind explaining to our audience some of the nuances and difference where early on maybe five or ten years ago, they might

have poached talent from LA. But this is a different culture and a perspective in each of those communities.

Lyn Christensen: Right, yes, so I primarily worked for technology founders who started family offices. And there are many now in Silicon Valley. And they have an understatedness about their wealth. They all drove Prius’ in the old days. And they are not flash, in general. And but when the several of them wanted to start family offices, there were not a lot in the Bay area. There were probably some, but the recruiters they had spoken to early on were all based in LA because that was a bigger market for the Hollywood crowd. So, they had initially recruited some talent from LA. And it was funny because it did not last. The ones I was involved with, they ended up moving back to LA. And some of them on their own, some of them it had to be explained to them, but it was not just for being uptight and laid back as some people might think of LA as laid back. It was not that so much as just in LA, the people who were in the entertainment business, their style and their presentation is part of their brand.

That is not so true with tech people. And in a lot of cases they do not care. They are wearing crocs if they are wearing shoes at all, or flip flops. And they do not really care. They do not care if the linens are perfectly, in fact they do not want them dry-cleaned



because it is not good for the environment. They do not care if it is a little wrinkly or if the silver is not polished. They are not uptight about it. And the people that came from LA to work for barrier families would apply their former standards of everything they did. And it was not valued. And yet the things they did value, the folks from LA had a harder time understanding. So, it was funny to see and there were some examples that were kind of comical, but also just it points to culture and how important culture is and understanding the family’s values. Because I think that it is not a given that because a family has a certain level of wealth that they want, I do not know, that

they want name-brand everything, and they want to spend the most for every single thing they buy.

I remember one of the wives of one of these tech founders, she asked them to buy something and I cannot remember, like a bookshelf, something small, and they did not find something in the price range she wanted. She went online to Wal-Mart or

something and bought it herself and had it shipped. And so it was very funny because the woman was horrified, the woman from LA. But, it was just not that strange for her to do that. She was like, “I just want a really simple thing, and this thing will work. So, I am getting it.” So, I think that, yeah, there are definitely some growing pains and learnings with people that are new to the money, to the wealth and are on the tech side where they are not flashy.

Angelo Robles: Given the amazing importance of course on talent in the family office, a family would hope to make the right hire and make it a great environment for

the employee, for that employee to flourish. Sometimes, though, that is not meant to be and people are going to have their own decisions for desiring to go in a different direction for a variety of reasons. From

the aspect of having an internal HR or a consultancy HR organization, I am assuming you do not want to have any or too much disruption in the family office. You may have candidates that you keep in touch with or others that could temporarily in the family office take the place short-term of often a critical C-level talent.

Lyn Christensen: Yes, this is where I think

There are definitely some growing pains and learnings with people that are new to the money, to the wealth and are on the tech side where they are not flash....it points to culture and how important culture is and understanding the family’s values.



that networking really comes into play. And, of course, I am hired to do this but I am always thinking about who would be good, and who would backfill. I am looking around thinking, “Okay, if this person, if something happened to this person, what would I do,” And whether it is internally or external. And some people make it more formal. They have a spreadsheet that shows these are the critical positions that if we lost, we would have to act quickly. And these are the potential sources to backfill that, again, whether internal or elsewhere. But, I have good success with staying in touch with people I have noticed along the way are good. And I think if you belong to some of the family office networks, you can spend some of your time thinking about that. That is some of the management role is to be thinking about how you build up staff, and who can be developed, and who needs to potentially where it needs to come from external sources. But, I consider that part of a manager’s role and also my role to be thinking about that all of the time.

Angelo Robles: Yes that is certainly is very important and critical especially from your perspective, because you never know what might happen to specific talent in an SFO. And having an opportunity for someone to even temporarily step up to the plate can be important. Here on the East Coast, where, again, money may be a little bit more in multiple generations. So, there is

arguably more of a level of complexity. You see a lot of significant family offices even still, in terms of the number of employees, yet when I think of my relationships on the West Coast and others in Asia, newer areas of wealth, often with significant assets, even more then some generational families that I may be a little more familiar with, I still see where there are pockets of large family offices that have 100, 150 even 200 + employees. Is the process, and you said sometimes doing dual purpose, the SFO’s in more nuanced or newer parts of wealth, appear to have less employees. Is that a trend? Will technology and other aspects of artificial intelligence and machine learning progress that?

Lyn Christensen: Yes, I think that along with these founders being younger and coming up through technology, they tend to hire people that are like themselves that are technology savvy, that know how to use technology tools to streamline. The Google app, for example, you can share a lot of information, and you can create master sheets that everybody can access that are very good tools for managing all kinds of processes. And I know one family that actually they were building a portal and they are turning it into a business because it has been so successful that one of the banks wants to make it a product to attract new business and just offer it as a tool for families. And I think I have seen it and



once you see what it can do and how much more efficient things can be and the family appreciates it because they can get on any time and see the status of a multitude of areas of their lives. And then that gives them comfort and they do not necessarily have to make a phone call, because they can see it.

And you definitely, that is a very progressive way to manage. And I think it will take time,

but it is coming. I see it. And I see people that love technology implementing that as a strong tool. They are not doing things the old way of telling every person and making a lot of phone calls. They are managing by tech tools. So, it is interesting. And I think if people see it and if it comes out and it is a package, people will adopt it. I think building it is, I am so impressed that they went and built it, because that is not easy to do. But, to have the vision for that and to utilize it, it can really cut down on the amount of staff.

Angelo Robles: We still see older family offices that even on aggregation and reporting of assets have internal talent dedicated to getting custodial and maybe other alternative investment feeds and on a

basic excel spread sheet effectively keeping track of what the family owns, which may be billions. So, an opportunity to use more modern technology in what is out there, but I could maybe reverse that a little bit. When I talk to some of the families about that, that it may not be the most efficient, sometimes they bring up, “You are correct, but we get the feeds. My internal talent puts it in a simple format that I understand. And,

Angelo, it’s not touching anyone else’s hands. If I use sometimes certain outside providers, how do I know the quality and ethics of their employees that are seeing my personal information?” Does technology

mean that it is going to go through more hands or could simply a family office build out that technology proprietary for them?

Lyn Christensen: Right, well this portal would be proprietary to each family, and you can give levels of access for whatever section you are on. If it happened to be investments, or finance, or whatever you can restrict and you control it. And then you can sync up software programs to it as you would like if you have an investment portfolio tool or something. So, I think actually fewer people are touching it, but I know that people would want to be comforted that that was secure and safe. And I understand that, but I think it is actually very secure. And I think you can

Once you see what [technology] can do and how much more efficient things can be and the family appreciates it...it is a very progressive way to manage. And I think it will take time, but it is coming.



show that.

Angelo Robles: It still is a technology and perhaps cloud-based. We all see the cyber security issues that are going on. So, families that are brand families creating SFO’s that are tech savvy and younger, they must have some level of concern over cyber security. I could only imagine what they are building internally for their own family office. I would like to hope that it’s secure?

Lyn Christensen: I think it is, but I think the flipside is that they have high trust in technology. And I grant you that some of these leaks are very public, and they seem grand, but I think that we have always had risk, even if it was on paper. I just think that now it is maybe, and I get that it is concerning if it is public. But I feel that that the tech founders I know, they have such high confidence in technology that they are comfortable with that risk. And they put the proper controls in place. I think that it is part of their nature because that is what they do every day is they just have a high level of comfort with it. So, I think educating others and showing them what the controls are, and the safeguards, and so forth, there is definitely more risk when you are using technology only because if there is some breach, it can go wide versus narrow. And I think that is the difference. It makes people nervous. But, there have not been a lot of them if you really think of how much

information is out there.

Angelo Robles: That is true. Changing the subject a little bit, so let us say, and, again, we will stick to the dynamic perhaps of a younger wealth creator in some of the areas you have more of a specific specialty in has a liquidity event. They had people that were close to them. It may be an investment banker, a personal banker, an attorney, an accountant. They are now going away from someone who may be talented but in theory is serving the masses to building their own SFO for a privacy, control and customization, in wanting people that are totally dedicated 24/7 to them. There must be a dynamic in the relationship with those that were with them from a younger stage in their career. Now, I am assuming some of those people I noted may be invited to leave their old world behind and now work in that single family office. Are those some of the first employees that these type of tech founders are usually hiring inside their family office?

Lyn Christensen: That is not my experience, although it would make sense. For example, they have a lawyer they like and they bring him over. That has not been my experience. My experience is the first hire they have made is some sort of estate manager, or assistant/estate manager. That could be a jack of all trades and help them on a variety of issues, and then outsource the rest. These vendors help them with a variety of



things, make recommendations. Also, in Silicon Valley, there are a number of firms that provide services for family offices that are getting started.

They will provide payroll, and accounting, and legal services, a lot of things you touched on, benefits. And the families that I know when they were getting started went to those sources. And some of those are the same sources that startups will use when they are first getting going and they do not want to have to hire a specialist for all of those functions. And they will use an outsource solution. So, a lot of families have used that. Now, that is actually hard to migrate away from as well. It has its own challenges, because you can get comfortable, and they have all of your information. And they do not necessarily provide the benefits you talked about, the customization, the dedication to your family, the tailored approach, and those things. And you may not get the A-team. You are getting, you are just getting a blend. But, so there have been some challenges migrating away from those folks as well.

I have not found that they brought a lot of people from their prior, actually now that I think about it, there have been some areas but not the ones you mentioned. In general, I think that they start very small and cautiously. And they hire an assistant, something along those lines, someone who

can just help them with a variety of tasks. And that is where they start.

Angelo Robles: I am assuming for even the tech founders and others, for the same reasons for hundreds of years why families of wealth have created SFO’s and I noted it earlier, privacy, control, a big one, customization, and I guess they can. Do you see the number of SFO’s growing as wealth is exponentially growing and expanding among a greater group of people in that area, or do you still see them utilizing banks and MFO’s?

Lyn Christensen: No, it is definitely growing, because I get quite a few calls. And there is so much wealth creation happening. It is really phenomenal. And it is interesting because a lot of them are so young. I notice that they will talk to their other colleagues who have these same kind of liquidity events. And that person will say, “Well, you need to do this.” And they are kind of conflicted about it, but the person says, “Well, that is what you need to do. You are going to have these needs,” and you think about it. And that is typically when they start asking questions. But there are a lot and I noticed it is significant, all of the name-brand, Twitter, Facebook, even Apple, which is already public but the stocks have done so well. There are so many people linked in. It just goes on and on. So, there is just a lot, and maybe they do not all end up having



SFO’s, but there is some decision tree that they go through and make those choices.

Angelo Robles: Is there enough talent to go around servicing these wealth holders?

Lyn Christensen: I do not know the answer to that. I will say that the ones I have been involved with have not typically hired people with much family office experience. And so there is a risk in that. In some way that could be good. I think you should supplement. I think there should be certain people that have a family office. I think it is okay to take some that do not. But, they were not targeting family office experience, because it is hard to find. It is hard to find in Silicon Valley. So, it is a great question. And the answer is probably no. So, maybe they are pulling people, in my experience, they are pulling people from other backgrounds,

Angelo Robles: When you are helping the family to hire the right people and you at least initially, leading the interview process, and they want to hire the best of the best for them in a specific role. Is there some concern that a really talented person potentially looking to be a significant force in the family’s investment decisions globally, that working for one family may, after a couple of years get a little boring to them? How do you keep it fresh besides simply

overpaying, the fact that you are especially if you have not done it before, you are just going to be working for this one family. And because they are a younger family to their wealth, there is not multiple branches of the family to give you a little different perspective. It’s either one person or maybe two. Do you find that to be an issue with some people that are still younger and talented in their career and maybe do not want to be tied down just by one relationship?

Lyn Christensen: I find that, and I actually have recruited for this, that has never been an issue. Most of them find it a positive because there are fewer stakeholders to have to please. They feel that they can get things done, and get to know that family, and serve their needs. The challenge has been around if someone is a real gogetter, there is a lot of confidentiality with these families. And so they cannot go out and network and talk about who they work for. They cannot necessarily talk about what they are doing. How do you leverage that? What are your long-term goals? And so some people have said family offices are


When you are helping a family to hire the right people...is there some concern that for a really talented person working for one family may, after a couple of years, get a little boring to them?


retirement jobs, and you have got to stay there until you retire. I do not know if that is true but that has been the concern more than the fact that it is one family. Because if you work for multiple families, it is easier to talk about it.

You have got diffusion of confidentiality, and it just makes it a little less of a concern. So, that has been the sticking point for most people is they think if this is not their last job, will this limit them for whatever jobs follow? So, you have to find the right person who is attracted to what the single family office is offering. And there are a lot of good things. I mean there are a lot of selling points, but it has to fit that person’s style and where there are in their career.

Angelo Robles: I understand this is going to be more of a compensation question, and there are different experts specific for that, but it is close enough in the realm that you are also dealing with. And staying effectively on that same topic, for a very large family, but I realized that some of the tech families are still going to have a fair amount of their capital still quote, unquote, tied up even it now is a public company. But if you are looking to attract someone who is really, really talented and lead really effectively a global brand for that individual investing and many other aspects, do you ever look to

even be competitive with someone who may be a very big earner within an investment

bank, or an entrepreneur? Does it make sense sometimes to create companies that are seeded and funded by the founders of tech companies to coinvest or work alongside of, in some fashion, with top, top-level talent that they are looking to bring onboard?

Lyn Christensen: I mean it is a great question because I have seen it. I actually saw one founder who wanted that level person, but I guess he did not want it enough because when it came down to it, he did not want to be as creative as you are talking about. But, that is what it takes. If you want someone at that level, you have to put the right incentives in place, and that is true for any industry. So, if you want to hire someone who is very entrepreneurial, you have to offer them an entrepreneurial environment and commensurate comp, whatever that is, commensurate pay. And that might include some upside participation, however you structure it. Maybe there are opportunities to coinvest, like you said. So, I think that it really comes

If you’re going to hire someone who is very entrepreneurial you have to offer them an entrepreneurial environment and compensation.



down to what they want to achieve. And if they want to achieve that and they want a thought partner on their staff and not just, well, I should not say not just, but a thought partner and not an administrator, not just a manager, but someone who is really leading and doing creative out of the box things, then that has to come from the top. And if they want that, then you have to structure the comp. Because we were looking at some candidates that ran very large funds, tremendous backgrounds. What are you going to put in place to get that person onboard? I mean they are not going

to come. It just makes sense when you think about it, but not everyone thinks about it until they are. I remember one family said, “Oh, I want to hire a young Warren Buffet.” I said, “Well, how do you find that?” So, it was very interesting. But, I am sure all of us want to hire a young Warren Buffet. How do you find them, and then how do you give them the right incentives? Because I have worked with a lot of tech founders. And when small tech companies get acquired, the founders do not usually stay. And they do not stay because their personality is such that they need a lot of degrees of freedom.

So, you really have to look at what incentives are you providing? What is the culture? Is this a person who is that entrepreneurial? Then you have got to offer that as part of the package. And if it is not there and if they are going to be micromanaged, you are going to lose them. So, it does not even make sense to try to get them.

So, I think a lot about those things, about how much autonomy is there, how much decision-making. It goes back to the first thing we talked about. What is the job? Is it a management role? Is it an investment role?

Are you running their businesses? What are you doing for the family? Are you running their estate and their personal life?

So, those are the questions that I think about right upfront when

we are hiring. It is not what they tell me they want. I try to read between the lines. What is it you really want? What are you trying to solve for? Yeah, it sounds obvious but not everyone approaches it.

Angelo Robles: Absolutely, over time, most don’t. And I am assuming over time, those needs are likely also going to change.

Lyn Christensen: Right.

Angelo Robles: And therefore the role, or potentially specifically the talent may change

[When hiring]....it is not what [the family] tells me they want. I try to read between the lines. What is it you really want? What are you trying to solve for?



with it or be forced out for lack of a better word.

Lyn Christensen: Right. And that happens in startups. People do not grow with the startup and then they work themselves out of a job.

Angelo Robles: And maybe my final question related to some of your comments that were made earlier and certainly a strong focus of yours in the community, taking a little bit of the startup approach or mentality to the concept of creating a single family office. And you noted you did not have deep experiences in this at first, no one did. I did not. We do not grow up in high school saying, “I think I want to be active in a single family office.” It is not something that happens.

So, the approach of often these tech founders that are now incredibly successful, and you hinted at it earlier, they do have a little different mindset potentially in creating their SFO looking for creative people, an alignment of culture and interests, not nine to five. I think there is something that families around the world could all learn effectively from the startup culture and community. If you could maybe give our audience a couple of key points that they could maybe have as takeaways?

Lyn Christensen: Yeah, I think that it is probably number one to be less rigid, which is hard to translate into action. But, I think that think creatively is a big one. One of the tech founders I work with, one of his mottos, and he applies this to family officers, you should do something, some fundamental thing, do different every week. And he believed that if you always repeat your patterns, that your brain gets stuck. And it was kind of cool to hear him talk about it. I think as we get older, just by human nature we kind of like repetition. We sit in the same, you go into a class, you sit in the same seat, or you have the same patterns of where you park, or do whatever.

He is saying, no, no, no. Some of it is okay, but he is like you need to do something different. And he had that as a goal for people in his family office that they had to do something different once a week. And he just believes you will start to frame things differently in your mind. And I thought that is a way of thinking that is very unusual, and it is very unique to creative people. And to bring that to the family office was really, I loved it. I thought it was great. And people ended up embracing it and making it really fun.

So, the startups I have done, and I have been involved in some really cool ones. They were all tech startups. Most of them did well. Some of them you have heard



of. That was a key element was that there is this intangible thing about the people and the way they interact with each other. And if you read any management book, the number one reason people stay at a company is A, how they are managed and their relationship with their manager, and do they think that they are making an impact, and how do they know that? What kind of feedback are they getting? How do they know they are doing a good job? Those are the reasons people stay.

They are not comp. It is not comp. People think it is, and I get into arguments. It is never compensation. That is an easy thing to point at. It is never that. So, you have to think about the kind of people that will respond to a creative environment and behave more like owners, behave more like people who are invested in the outcome, that it is not just a job. And that is what startups do.

You get stock. You start when it is scrappy and you are going to have to do everything, all of the heavy lifting, and you are willing to do that. And you are part of team. And that is the thing that probably, people that go work for the government do not think like that. And there is nothing wrong with that. It is just a different kind of person. But, what my experience in tech is they hire people that think differently, that are not so rigid about their job description. I am not

saying you do not have a job description, but they do things. They solve problems in a creative way. They think more about the intention of where they want to end versus managing the risk, or protecting their job, or controlling information flow. They do not think like that.

They think about, “How can I make this better? How can I get to this goal for the family, or myself, or whatever I am trying to accomplish?” It is just a different mindset. And I think if we could be a little bit more open and I think that is the difference. And it is hard to do, but I think defining your culture and looking for people that have these traits, especially in your managers up front, because managers will then hire people like that, and people that are creative problem-solvers, not just an in-the-box do their job.

So, I know that sounds maybe inconsistent with family office operations, but I think you can have both. Maybe you do not have crazy creativity in the family office, but just like the family I said that is building this portal. That is really creative. It is a really creative solution. And I have seen other things like that. And it is really exciting, and the family like it too.

Angelo Robles: I know what your answer is going to be but, but I am assuming you do not judge their creativity of the executive



pre-hire by them taking a Myers Briggs test or do you?

Lyn Christensen: Well, I have seen those tests around. I do not think they are wrong. I think you look more at attitude and actually I think Myers Briggs is one thing that could point to a person’s style. I mean for example if they are a really strong J, which is the last letter, those people are pretty structured, generally.

Angelo Robles: Right.

Lyn Christensen: Not that that is all bad, but that would tell you something that they are not going to live in the gray area very comfortably. So, I mean that could be something you build into. Hey, we want people on our team that are a little less rigid, not that every family would want that, but some families want that.

The tech founders I work for, at least some of them seem to like that. They like creative problem solving. They look people that are proactively thinking about things before they happen, that are suggesting solutions versus waiting for things to be requested. Those are the kinds of traits that they look for. They are looking for people with the lights on who are really engaged.

Angelo Robles: That has been incredibly insightful. Lyn, I enjoyed this so much.

Lyn Christensen: Well, thank you.

Angelo Robles: Perhaps to give a parting comment to our audience and for those who would have an interest in reaching out to you, perhaps your email or contact info as well.

Lyn Christensen: Sure, yeah, so, I think we mentioned this. I did not intend to get into family offices. I just knew some tech founders who asked me to help with their family offices. I did not think I would do it for a long time, but now I realize I have an expertise in it, and I really like it, and I like other people. And I think that when you can build a good culture, all things follow, maybe not all things, but it just makes everything easier.

So, I am pretty passionate about that, and I think that you can affect change through that. It does start at the top. So, you have to be boughtin and spend some time on it. But then it gets easier. So, I would be happy to speak to people if they are interested. I have, of late, been spending more time networking just because there are so many family offices out there that when we face a lot of the same challenges, and there are not a lot of people we can talk to because of privacy and other things.

Angelo Robles: True.



Lyn Christensen: But it is a fascinating world. And my contact is, my personal email is [email protected]. I am also on LinkedIn. So, reach out if you have an interest, and hopefully this was helpful.

Angelo Robles: That is fantastic, Lyn.

Lyn Christensen: Thank you, Angelo.

Angelo Robles: Again, everyone, this Angelo Robles at Family Office Association. Thank you all for listening and we look forward to the next time. Thank you and have a good evening.


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