Affiliations

Scott R. Peppet

Scott is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law in Boulder, Colorado, where he teaches negotiation, conflict resolution, contracts, ethics and family business law. He is also President of Chai Trust Company.
Before moving to Colorado, Scott was a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and a Senior Fellow on Negotiation at the Harvard Negotiation Research Project. At Harvard, Scott taught the Negotiation Workshop for several years and co-taught a new course titled Arbitration, Mediation, and Dispute Systems Design. He was also a faculty member for Harvard’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers.

In addition to his academic work, Scott has an active negotiation training and consulting practice. He has worked with such companies as Goldman Sachs, Manulife, Lexmark, IBM, MasterCard, Monsanto, Xilinx, LL Bean, Conoco, BP, the CIBC, Bank of Montreal, and Genentech to help them improve their negotiation results and manage their strategic relationships more effectively. His practice also includes organizational interventions in situations of team or executive-level crisis, where he provides negotiation and communication coaching and advice. He also consults to families and foundations on a variety of matters and has hands on experience with family offices and private trust companies.

Scott is the author of several articles on legal ethics and dispute resolution ethics. He is the co-author of an award-winning book on negotiation titled Beyond Winning: Negotiating to Create Value in Deals and Disputes (Harvard University Press, 2000) and of a textbook titled Processes of Dispute Resolution: The Role of Lawyers (Foundation Press, 3d edition, 2002). He has served on the Supreme Court of Colorado’s Standing Committee on the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct and was the Director of the Leeds School of Business First Annual Japha Symposium on Business and Professional Ethics. He is a director at Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc. and Anixter (AXE) and a member of the ownership committee of Equity International.
Scott did his undergraduate studies in International Conflict Resolution at Cornell, and received his law degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude, where he was an editor, co-founder and co-editor-in-chief of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review.

Ricardo Leonardos

Ricardo has over thirty years of professional experience in finance, investments and corporate governance. He is the founder and managing director of Symphony Consultoria e Participações, a family business consulting firm based in Brazil, with expertise in governance, succession, wealth planning, and family offices. On a recent assignment Ricardo served for four years as CEO of the family office he structured for a prominent Brazilian family.

For more than a decade Ricardo was a partner of Brasilpar, a corporate finance and investment firm in Brazil. As a venture capitalist, he was involved in financing and helping entrepreneurs structure and develop their businesses. He assisted shareholders and executives in defining and implementing strategies, managerial standards and corporate governance structures. As a financial consultant, Ricardo assisted companies going public by working at the side of the shareholders to evaluate the best alternatives and prepare them for the after market. Ricardo was the leading partner in the creation of the first independent asset management company to operate in Brazil.

Ricardo was also CEO of Sul America Investimentos, the asset management arm of Brazil’s largest insurance company. He was CEO of ING Investment Management, where he was responsible for launching the investment operations of the Dutch group in Brazil. His activities focused on the design and management of investment portfolios for family offices, wealthy individuals and institutional clients. He also served as CFO for Tivit, an IT outsourcing company of the Votorantim Group.

Ricardo received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Faculdade de Economia São Luis and his MBA in Finance and International Business from NYU – Leonard Stern School of Business. He currently serves on the board of directors of Tecnisa S.A. (a construction company listed on the São Paulo Stock Exchange), Hospital Samaritano – São Paulo, and on the advisory board of Peninsula family office. Ricardo is a certificate holder in family business advising from the Family Firm Institute; a certified Board Member by the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance; CFA (CNPI) certified by APIMEC – Associação dos Analistas e Profissionais de Investimento do Mercado de Capitais; and a Registered Portfolio Manager with the CVM – Comissão de Valores Mobiliários (Brazilian SEC). He is fluent in Portuguese and English.

Mollie H. Niess

Project Manager and Research Associate
As Project Manager and Research Associate, Mollie manages diverse projects for the Strategy Group. Her responsibilities include writing, editing, project development, proposal writing, research and digital interface, as well as event planning for family and other functions.

Mollie comes to the Strategy Group from an editorial, marketing and events background where she served in a variety of roles at multinational publishing and event companies. She has been a Group Show Director, managing large teams of marketing, sales, operations and conference staff that planned and executed global trade shows. She has also held client account management and editorial positions. Mollie has a global perspective on business and has worked with clients, speakers, authors and teams from all regions of the globe. She has on-the-ground work experience in Canada, The Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands and all regions of the United States, as well as long distance client and team management experience in México and Brazil.

Mollie has a Bachelor of Arts in English & American Literature from Dartmouth College. She has a working knowledge of French.

René Sonneveld

René Sonneveld is an acknowledged business leader and turn-around manager in the Southern Cone of South America. As a chairman, board member, and CEO of family and privately-owned companies in Europe and South-America, René has word-class expertise in coaching stakeholders and family executives on next-generation transitions and board members on adapting corporate governance changes. René coaches professional sports stars and loves bringing out the best in young people.

He founded MVD Capital Partners, located in Montevideo, Uruguay, involved in M&A and VC activities in South America. He is co-founder of Parks Farming Investments, an agricultural asset manager that has developed 120,000 acres of sustainable cattle land in Paraguay.

René started his career as an international tax lawyer working in The Netherlands, Hong Kong, and Curacao. He has extensive experience in international business development leading the expansion of Germany’s largest brewery Warsteiner in Latin America, and the global commodities trading expansion of the Argentine Moreno family by establishing, amongst others, storage facilities in the Middle-East. René worked as a Managing Director with UBS Private Banking in Zurich and as Head Global Wealth Management with Deutsche Bank in Geneva, managing global teams of experts in offices worldwide. He finished his banking career as Vice-President with Citibank New York as the “family governance” champion for Latin America in 2010.
The Queen of the Netherlands appointed René as Honorary Consul General in Uruguay in 2012, which the current King renewed in 2017. The consular activities have given him valuable insights into international government agencies’ internal working and foreign affairs.

Besides coaching, René is passionate about the circular economy and sustainable energy projects. His ambition is to develop a green hydrogen supply chain from South America to Europe, thereby supporting the development of local South American communities and the decarbonization objectives of the Netherlands and the European Union.

René holds a law degree from the University of Amsterdam and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He can coach in Dutch, English, German, and Spanish.

He is an instructor at Rutgers University of the Leadership Coaching for Organizational Performance course and Distinguished Executive In-House Resident at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Tiffany Jones

Tiffany is the Founder and CEO of Momentum Advisory Group that was established in response to the growing demand for advice on leadership, change and family business in Australia. There comes a time when the pace of change requires new urgency, whether redefining a leadership role, realigning a business model or reconnecting generations to ensure a lasting legacy. Tiffany has over fifteen years experience advising institutions and family offices in the art of leading with confidence and building momentum.

Bringing a unique set of capabilities to deliver bespoke advisory services, Tiffany assists families in learning effective communication and conflict resolution skills, resolving generational issues, facilitating family retreats and designing programs on family education and philanthropy, with a view to increase each family member’s individual contribution and connection for future generations. Tiffany collaborates with a group of partners with targeted expertise to provide a quick response to the unique challenges each family faces and to create and support an agreed set of goals.

Tiffany received a B.S. in Organizational Change and Learning from Northwestern University. She has jointly authored several leadership and team effectiveness models and is accredited in a range of tools including the General Electric Change Acceleration Process and Work Out, TKI Conflict Mode Instrument, Coaching Mastery and Contention Style Inventory. She was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs in New York, where she helped build the globally recognized Pine Street Leadership Development Group and is a regular speaker with The Executive Connection in Australia and New Zealand.

During her time at Goldman Sachs JBWere, Tiffany was responsible for launching the first corporate-led programs on family business and nonprofit leadership in Australia, the latter in partnership with Harvard Business School, and continues to advise leaders and boards in both sectors. Tiffany provides advice to a select group of Australia’s multi-generation families and has an international portfolio of clients. She and her husband reside in Sydney with their daughter.

Alexandre Méry-Sanson Desvignes

Alexandre (Alik) has a strong background in consultancy and entrepreneurship. He worked for Arthur Anderson in the Real Estate and M&A division in México City providing consultancy to small and medium family owned companies in very diverse industries (Entertainment, Master Plan Communities, Spirits and Press distribution).

His entrepreneurial attitude and passion comes from starting a new venture within his family owned company. With the family’s backing, Alik and a sibling acquired a Dry-Cleaning Master Franchise for México. It initially owned 14 stores and ultimately, they expanded the operation to more than a hundred stores in 25 cities. Through this endeavor he gained first-hand knowledge of the intricacies among the different members of a business family system.

His main role within the master franchise organization was the development of new points of sale through a network of local franchisees. His clients were local prominent families that wished to diversify their current operations. He had the opportunity to build strong bonds with these families due to the trust that their long-term relationship shaped. Realizing the importance of the family structure within his organization and within his franchisee’s network he decided to take a deeper interest in matters related to family businesses and began to study the field through reading and courses in the subject. This provided him with the basic tools to better understand the complexities of living, working and communicating in two different but intertwined systems.

For the last five years, Alik has also been managing income producing properties in México as well as providing consultancy work to different clients in the real estate field. He develops strategies for the acquisitions of different types of assets, deal structure and procurement of equity and debt for specific projects with different associates. These groups are mainly family owned firms.

Alik also provides consultancy work for a mayor entertainment and resort project in the Yucatan Peninsula. This last effort has encompassed the inception of the project, contact and engagement of the operators for the different business units, and is currently in the final stages of securing capital for the first phase of the project.

Alik is a strong believer in continuous education. He holds a BA degree in Business Administration from ITAM (México) and a joint Executive MBA degree from UCLA (USA) and Adolfo Ibañez (Chile). He has completed extension courses in top management, family business and real estate at ITAM. He is an outdoors enthusiast and enjoys reading. He is multicultural, lives in México City and is fluent in English, French and Spanish.

Patrik Hayoz

Patrik has been providing investments and wealth management solutions to high net worth individuals for 30 years, 25 thereof dedicated to Latin America. He initiated his career with UBS in Frankfort and Stuttgart assisting German clients. He then integrated into the team of UBS in Zurich in charge of Mexican customers. His dedication and passion to develop constantly new business opportunities led him to the role of Representative in the UBS Representative Office in Lima to cover both Peru and Bolivia. Thanks to his instrumental participation to the success of the operations in Lima, he took over as Head of that Representative Office and as Executive Director. In fact, the Representative Office in Lima became a model for UBS within Latin America for its business development methodology and ongoing growth. Later on, Patrik became Head of the Representative Office in Caracas, Venezuela, as Executive Director, to replicate the same business model. He was then invited to join UBS in México to contribute to the creation of the UBS Bank México, an entity focused on the local market (onshore). Subsequently he went back to Switzerland and after a few years, he returned to Lima to lead a Wealth Management team at Banco de Crédito del Peru, the Peruvian main banking institution.

Building on his years of experience dealing with families with great wealth, Patrik has developed a profound understanding about the role of family patterns in the relationship among family members which is of significative importance in a variety of aspects related to family governance, succession, decisions-making processes, and conflicts.

Patrik is the founder of LIOMSA Advisers SAC, a company based in Lima Peru, which offers wealth advisory services, but above all and in close cooperation with “The Strategy Group, Inc.”, provides advice to business families.

Patrik is a native French speaker and Swiss citizen based in Lima. He is fluent in Spanish, German, and English. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the Zurich University for Applied Sciences and a Master´s degree in Organizational and Business Psychology from the University of Liverpool. He attended the executive program at the Darden Business School at the University of Virginia, and holds a UBS investment diploma and an investment advisory certification issued by the Mexican Stock Exchange. A member of STEP and the Family Firm Institute, he is a STEP certificate holder in family business advising and family governance.