GREENWICH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Family Office Association (FOA) is proud to announce the appointment of Ryan Ansin, 26, as president, and the organization of FOA’s upcoming Spring Summit 2014, to be held on April 9 and 10 at Westchester Country Club in Rye, NY.
Ansin’s appointment and the upcoming summit herald the completion of FOA’s evolution into a global membership organization, designed to deliver private educational and networking opportunities, proprietary investment research, and access to the finest thought leadership to multiple generations of wealthy families and the professionals who run their single-family offices. FOA members have access to thought leadership from some of the world’s sharpest minds: PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, Greenlight Capital founder and president David Einhorn, Michael Milken and many more.
Ansin began his new role with FOA in early 2014. In addition to his work for the association, he is co-founder of Clarity Project, a program that leverages the diamond industry’s supply chain to support primary education and adult literacy in diamond-mining communities such as Kono, Sierre Leone. He is also executive director of Every Person Has A Story (EPHAS) Productions, a non-profit organization that he founded to raise awareness and foster connections between people in developing countries and students in American schools through photographs. He aggregates these and his other non-profit and for-profit start-ups into an initiative that he calls “For-Purpose.”
Ansin’s hire is part of FOA’s Entrepreneurship and Next Gen initiatives to bring new voices to the investment table. Angelo Robles, founder of FOA, announced these initiatives last year and continues to execute his commitment to them. "I have been seeking the proper person who has the experience, background, and Next Gen point of view and have found it embodied in Ryan Ansin,” Robles says. “His background in his own family's investments, social entrepreneurship and philanthropic endeavors represent a Next Gen of wealth. I am thrilled to welcome him as president."
Ansin is committed to helping millennial investors achieve their investment goals. “Millennials thrive on a new value set of interconnectivity, transparency and purpose,” he says. “And they see no mutual exclusivity between doing ‘well’ and doing ‘good’; on the contrary, for millennials, they go hand in hand. Among my priorities will be connecting our Next-Gen members to investors and thought leaders who can help them marry financial performance to purpose.”
The Next Gen has different value props and different behaviors than that of baby boomers. Given the seismic transference of wealth between generations, wealth management firms, especially those in ultra-high-net-worth/high-net-worth (UHWN/HNW), must have the ability to attract, engage, and communicate multi-generationally. Until the wealth transfer is complete, firms must have the staffing to reach a variety of constituencies.
Both Ansin and Robles have organized the FOA Spring Summit to resonate with multi-generational wealth holders by including panelists who represent different generations themselves. "I love what FOA brings to families in terms of leading-edge speakers and thought leadership from a diverse and well-known group of financial services superstars,” Ansin says. “I look forward to representing the voice of my generation at the same table – and not siloed off to the ‘kiddy’ table.”
“In offering guidance to wealthy families and the professionals who support them, an ‘either/or’ approach won’t work anyone,” Robles says. “Investment insight without thought leadership lacks context. And thought leadership without investment insight lacks the means to turn thought into action. This is why FOA delivers both – a uniquely compelling offering in the family-office space.”
Robles goes on to say that hiring Ryan and organizing the Spring Summit are just the beginning of FOA’s commitment to supporting its member families via events, white papers and best-in-class information for investors. “We are planning a new digital presence, including a website and social digital strategy, which will roll out shortly. It is exciting to see FOA's growth in width and breadth to access and distribute content to our members.”