Jennifer M. Pendergast - Family Advisors vs. Family Boards

Family Business Consulting Group

A senior associate of The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc.®, Jennifer Pendergast specializes in strategic planning, family and business governance, family office structure, and facilitation. Jennifer is an experienced management consultant with an extensive background in the many strategic challenges faced by family firms serving a broad range of clients, ranging from startup to Fortune 500 companies, in both for-profit and non-profit arenas.

With a Ph.D. in strategy, Pendergast has taught Emory University's Goizueta Business School, Georgia Tech and The Wharton Business School. Her teaching experience spans undergraduate, MBA and executive level programs. Pendergast's presentations, consultations and publications concentrate on strategic planning and business growth, developing and managing family meetings, family councils and ownership groups, structuring and improving the effectiveness of boards of directors and creating and managing family offices.

Her research on corporate governance and top management leadership issues has been published in a number of academic journals, including European Management Journal and Strategic Management Journal. She completed research on the impact of board structure and composition on corporate performance for her doctoral dissertation. She enters the field of family business having worked as a professor, as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, a leading international management consulting firm, and as an investment banker for a Wall Street firm. She has also worked in the family office of one of the largest family entities in the southeast. Jennifer received her Ph.D. in Management from Wharton Business School and holds a B.S. in Finance from University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce. Jennifer is the Chairman of the Board of the Fulton County Juvenile Justice Fund. She is married, the mother of twins and resides in Atlanta.