TD&A Family Business Consultant Biographies

Thomas D. Davidow, Ed.D., is founder and principal of Thomas D. Davidow & Associates. He also co-founded Genus Resources, which became a leader in the field of family consultation. Drawing upon his extensive background in psychology, family counseling, and individual therapy Dr. Davidow pioneered the interdisciplinary method in family business consulting. The Davidow Interdisciplinary Method™ is rooted in family systems theory and addresses the family issues that can interfere with sound business decisions.

Dr. Davidow has more than 25 years of experience working with hundreds of national and international family controlled enterprises. He has worked with businesses in diverse fields including retail, distribution, manufacturing, real estate, construction and more.

A frequent speaker at national and international seminars, Dr. Davidow has conducted seminars for financial institutions on the “Psychology of Wealth” and “Best Business Practices for the Family Owned Business.” At the 9th Annual Family Business Network Conference in Paris he presented a major paper, “How Multi-Generational Family Firms Transfer Management Control Successfully.” He also addresses memberships of family business programs at academic institutions across the United States, including Northeastern University, University of New Hampshire, University of Southern Maine, Purdue University, University of Southern California, and the University of Vermont.

In addition, Dr. Davidow has served on a number of boards, including the Attorneys for Family Held Enterprises (AFHE) and the Family Firm Institute. His articles on subjects of critical interest to family businesses appear in professional journals and periodicals such as Family Business magazine. Dr. Davidow is a regular contributor to Families in Business magazine. He has been quoted as an authority on family business consulting by many publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

Dr. Davidow is a co-founder of the Northeastern University Center for Family Business and the Center for Family Business at the University of New Hampshire. He continues to be an active participant with both institutions.

Cynthia Adams Harrison, Ed. D., LICSW, is a consultant specializing in enhancing performance in business and sport. She was an associate consultant for Genus Resources, LLC for twelve years, specializing in enhancing business and team performance.

She works extensively with family members, key non-family executives, management teams and individuals to develop motivation, self-confidence, team building and mental training techniques necessary for success. Dr. Adams Harrison also designs and implements succession transition, prepares family members for leadership positions in the family business, and addresses the performance needs of its non-family senior managers.

Dr. Adams Harrison is a popular national and international motivational speaker and workshop presenter. Highlights from her numerous speaking engagements include "The Special Challenge of a Family Business in Crisis" at the Turnaround Management Association Annual Conference; "Team Building Concepts in the Workplace"; "Your Mind and Heart: Team Building and Mental Training Skills for Enhanced Performance," "Women's Ways: Performance Tips for Success," and "Five Key Elements for Success."

At the 9th Annual World Congress of Sport Psychology in Lisbon, Dr. Adams presented "International Applications of Relational Theory to Women in Sport." She has co-presented workshops on such topics as estate planning and effective corporate governance in family business, including a presentation in Dallas at the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) "Board Symposium on Successful Family Businesses."

Her published work has been highlighted in Family Business Magazine and Teamwork Perspectives and Challenges, ICFAI University Press, India.

Dr. Adams Harrison has received numerous awards in her field. She has been recognized for her work with Olympic and professional athletes in national and international newspapers, magazines and television, most notably The New York Times, U. S. A. Today, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Time, U. S. News and has been interviewed for PBS and Good Morning America.

She is a member of many professional associations, including the National Association of Social Workers, the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology and the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Adams Harrison received a B.S. from Arizona State University, and M.S.W. and Ed. D. degrees from Boston University, where she specialized in Sport Psychology and has been an adjunct faculty member.

Susan Friedman is a strategy consultant with her own practice, serving both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. She began her career with the Boston Consulting Group, later becoming a founding partner of Telesis, Inc., a consulting firm since acquired by Cresap, McCormick and Paget. After several years working independently, including a year as Research Director for the Massachusetts Commission on Mature Industries for the Dukakis Administration, she joined Alliance Consulting Group, where she was promoted to Vice-President. She established her own practice in 1992.

A strategy consultant for over 30 years, Susan focuses on realistic assessments of an organization's internal and external environments as the basis for pragmatic recommendations. Her sector experience includes health care, consumer products, training and education.

Assignments typically address identifying and assessing growth opportunities, evaluating competitive dynamics, understanding the economic model underlying an organization's financial performance, assessing the internal alignment of an organization's operations and the "match" between the needs of a target market and the organization's capabilities. She has also developed business plans for a number of organizations.

Her national client base includes Unilever NV, Omnicom Group, Kaiser Permanente, Pepperidge Farm, and Warner Lambert. She has also worked with the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency, Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA), and WGBH Educational Foundation. Most recently, she has been working in the fields of education and health care with Achieve, Inc., the Merck Institute of Science Education, The National Center on Education and the Economy, the Massachusetts Department of Education, Graduate School of Education at Harvard, American Red Cross and Children's Hospital Boston.

Ms. Friedman has an AB in economics from Brown University where she was commencement speaker, attended the London School of Economics, and has an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School.

George Burns was born in Boston, Massachusetts, raised in Maine, and admitted to practice in New York in 1973 and in Maine in 1978. After practicing commercial, corporate, and securities law with Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle (now Nixon Peabody) in Rochester, New York, he moved back to Maine. In 1980, George and another partner started the law firm Burns, Ray, DeLano, Macdonald, which later merged with Bernstein Shur. With his move back to Maine, George's practice expanded to litigation.

George's trial and appellate experience has been wide-ranging, and has included business and construction litigation, probate and fiduciary duty disputes, insurance coverage issues, antitrust and securities claims, and product liability matters. After concentrating for the last 25 years on litigation, George has committed himself to offering mediation and counseling on avoiding and resolving such disputes. He has acted as mediator or arbitrator of over 100 cases.

George also serves as a trustee and counselor to several prominent Maine family businesses and has endeavored to apply his dispute resolution and business experience to family business environments.

George is a member of the Commercial Panel of the American Arbitration Association, and the Maine Superior Court has appointed him as an arbitrator, mediator, and early neutral evaluator for its Court Alternative Dispute Service (CADRES). He recently has served on Chief Justice Saufley's Business and Consumer Docket Advisory Committee.

George is recognized by Best Lawyers in America for his work in alternative dispute resolution, commercial litigation, corporate law, construction law, and timber law. He is AV-rated by Martindale Hubbell.

George has come to believe that many family disputes have non-legal causes and therefore require non-legal solutions. For this reason he has teamed with Thomas Davidow & Associates, experts on family dynamics in a business setting. With this help George is able to better advise families when the law can help, when it is not likely to help, and when a combination of legal and non-legal counseling will yield the best results.

EDUCATION JD, New York University, 1973 BS, International Affairs, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, 1969 AFFILIATIONS Admitted to practice: States of Maine and New York

MEMBER Maine State Bar Association American Bar Association Cumberland County Bar Association Maine Bar Foundation, Fellow American Arbitration Association, Commercial Panel Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, Director