The Future of Family Businesses: Strategic Sales, Family Offices, PE Partnerships, or Generational Transition?

Tatjana is an M&A partner at Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC and focuses on middle market acquisition and disposition transactions across a range of industries including healthcare, manufacturing, food and beverage, and technology. To date, Tatjana has advised clients in M&A transactions valued at over $20 billion in the aggregate. She is a frequent speaker on M&A topics and serves as a Chair of the American Bar Association’s “Private Target Deal Points Study,” which has been widely recognized as the gold standard for market metrics of key negotiated legal issues in M&A agreements.

Mr. Ballew co-founded Capital Alignment Partners in 2009 and serves as a Managing Director and member of the Investment Committee. Since co-founding the firm, Mr. Ballew has been involved in all aspects of the firm and has had successful investments in the business services, healthcare services and industrial services industries, most of which have been consolidation strategies. 

Prior to Capital Alignment Partners, Mr. Ballew spent three years in Morgan Keegan and Company’s investment banking group. While at Morgan Keegan, Mr. Ballew focused on mergers and acquisitions, as well as public and private capital financings in a variety of industries.

Prior to his tenure with Morgan Keegan, Mr. Ballew was a senior analyst in Wachovia’s fixed income derivatives group. Mr. Ballew currently serves on the board of Communities in Schools of Middle Tennessee, chairs their Development Committee, and has held the CFA designation since 2005.

Blake Hogan is the CEO of Nashville Door, a company with a 50-year heritage founded by WWII Navy Veteran L.W. Loyd. Nashville Door was recently acquired and is backed by Cobalt Service Partners, a private equity firm. Prior to this role, Hogan served as a Marine Officer and was the CEO of Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to helping veterans and military spouses start and grow their businesses. Bunker Labs has supported nearly 100,000 entrepreneurs over ten years before being acquired by Syracuse University. Additionally, Hogan serves as a Senior Advisor for the Milken Institute and is an appointee to the Governor's Tri-Stars and Stripes Council.

Leonora Zilkha Williamson is a Family Enterprise Coach and Associate Professor of the Practice at Vanderbilt University, where she has taught/ teaches Negotiation, Corporate Social Responsibility and Family Business. In 2019 she founded Platinum Rule Advisors, a consulting firm devoted to coaching, facilitation, training, workshops and retreats for families, family businesses and family offices. As a college professor and family coach, she particularly loves working with NextGens, and with senior family members on defining their legacy.

Her career includes roles at Brown Brothers Harriman, J.P. Morgan, the Boston Consulting Group, and Estée Lauder, which is publicly-traded and family-controlled. A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, she is also a certified coach (PCC) through the International Coach Federation, and a member of the Harvard Institute of Coaching, the Forbes Coaches Council, and Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches. She was named the #1 Executive Coach in Nashville in 2021 and 2022 by Influence Digest, and is a 2022 Nashville Business Journal Woman of Influence. A devoted meditator, Leonora is certified in Mindfulness Meditation Teaching and uses mindfulness regularly with her clients, along with the Enneagram.

Leonora’s interest in family enterprise is deeply personal. Her maternal grandfather was a Trust and Estates lawyer, and her father’s family has owned various business for over a century. Today, her family is the majority owner of Maine-based boat companies Sabre Yachts and Back Cove Yachts, and Leonora serves on the boards. Family enterprise has been the backdrop for much of her professional experience – especially at Brown Brothers and Estee Lauder. When she transitioned from corporate work and investing to coaching nearly a decade ago, her calling to work with families was clear.

Leonora has lived in 8 countries, speaks 5 languages, and carries 2 passports. She was a founding partner of women’s angel investment group The JumpFund. She has served on dozens of boards, both non-profit and for-profit. She is a frequent speaker on Negotiation and family business topics. She lives in Nashville with her two children and a golden retriever named Sally.