Christina Wing is a Senior Lecturer teaching in the Technology and Operations Management Unit at the Harvard Business School. She currently teaches first year TOM (Technology Operations Management) and first year LCA (Leadership and Corporate Accountability) students. Mrs. Wing is also an active participant in teaching and chairing Executive Education Programs that specialize in operations and family office work. Christina currently gives many speeches on leadership and understanding the different chapters of your life and has a passion for researching tradeoffs. She firmly believes that you can have it all, just not all at once.
Prior to teaching at Harvard Business School, Christina held a variety of roles within the Finance and General Management fields. She was most recently President and CEO of a family office where she oversaw a team of people and assets within real estate, art, collectables, private investments and philanthropic activities. Mrs. Wing’s prior experience included being a founder of Wing O’Donnell Ventures, an independent financial consulting and investment advisory practice. Christina was the CFO and head of operations at a startup venture formed by several of her HBS classmates that she joined in the early stages. She began her career in equities and energy investment banking, where she worked at Goldman Sachs and Kidder Peabody. Notably, Christina spent a year in Australia working on the privatization of the utility industry. She has served on many company boards.
A native of The Woodlands, Texas she graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1993 with a BBA in Finance and Organizational Behavior and Business Policy and she also earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1998.
Mrs. Wing is a very active participant in several charitable organizations. She is currently on the board of The Steppingstone Foundation, Operation Grateful Nation and Aspen Junior Golf. Christina resides in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts with her husband Tad and their three children.
This case focuses on a large Saudi Arabian industrial conglomerate and family business Zamil Group’s corporate and family governance journey. The 12 sons of the founder led and grew the group successfully after taking over from their father in 1961. The secret to their success was to arrive at all decisions with a consensus, although each had their own approach to dealing with issues. In the mid-1990s, they hired world-class consultants and created manuals and guidelines for governing the business and continuing the growth of the Group’s assets. They were the model for running a family business in Saudi Arabia. However, the increasing number of family members in the group—84 third-generation and 162 fourth-generation members and the upcoming fifth generation—created challenges going forward. They wanted to ensure that the governance principles they had created would evolve and develop in line with the changing dynamics. The upcoming generations did not have jobs waiting for them in the family business simply because they were members of the Zamil family, and not all of them were motivated to remain invested in the businesses. The second-generation and senior members of the third-generation wanted to make sure that they balanced the needs of the business and those of individual family members. They sought to put mechanisms in place that would keep the shares of the business in the family so as to avoid diluting the family’s ownership as they diversified the asset portfolio, addressed diverse risks, and catered to the consumption goals of the next generation. This might mean that the Group would eventually move from being operators to becoming financial investors.
In 2019, Bill Cummings, founder of Cummings Properties and Cummings Foundation and billionaire signer of the Giving Pledge, is winding down his roles at his company and foundation. How should the management move the company forward?
Wing, Christina R., and Marco Iansiti. "The Boston Beer Company: New CEO." Harvard Business School Case 619-021, October 2018. (Revised August 2019.)
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This case describes how Robert Fadel, CEO and chairman of ABC, one of Lebanon’s leading retail and real estate groups, professionalized the family business. Robert was the second son of the company’s founder, Maurice Fadel, who had run it single-handedly. Concerned that the business might be affected by rivalry between his four sons after he died, Maurice set up a trust in 2002 that designated Robert as his successor, and in May of 2009, Maurice revised the trust, granting Robert full control of the board as well. In June 2009, Maurice Fadel passed away, and according to the provisions of the trust, Robert became the chairman and CEO of ABC for a period of five years, with the possibility of extending his term by an additional three years on condition that he had the support of at least one of his brothers. In his new role, Robert set two main goals for the company. First, he wanted to turn ABC into a professionally managed organization at all levels. Second, he wanted to invest in long-term projects that would expand the business. Actualizing his vision was not an easy task given the family conflicts and Lebanon’s economic and political environment. However, Robert achieved both of his goals by the end of his eighth year, in 2017, when he stepped down as ABC’s CEO. The dilemmas at that point were whether he should appoint someone from outside the Fadel family as ABC’s new CEO, and whether he should step down from the board chairmanship.
Wing, Christina R., Esel Y. Cekin, and Samer Al-Rachedy. "From Beirut With Love (A)." Harvard Business School Case 619-024, September 2018. (Revised November 2018.)
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