Gifts from Canerector chief executive Amanda Hawkins and JM Eagle’s Walter and Shirley Wang will fund research, curriculum and a faculty directorship as the program marks 10 years.

Columbia Business School, part of Columbia University in New York, has received two philanthropic gifts to expand its Global Family Enterprise Program, which marks its tenth anniversary. The school did not disclose the size of either gift.

The first, from alumna Amanda Hawkins, establishes the Hawkins Family Fund for Global Family Enterprise to support programming, curriculum development and research. The second, from Walter and Shirley Wang, creates the Walter and Shirley Wang Family Directorship for Global Family Enterprise, funding the teaching and research of the program’s faculty director, Gaia Marchisio.

A number of universities have family enterprise and family-orientated programs. For example, in the UK, there is the "Ownership Project," a research initiative based at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Harvard University in the US, to take another example, has family enterprise programs, covering areas including family offices. The rise of family enterprise-related programs tracks rising global awareness of the importance of this area.

The gifters
Hawkins is the third-generation chief executive of Canerector, a Canadian industrial group co-founded by her grandfather, Stan Hawkins, in 1947 and later led by her father, Cecil Hawkins. Since becoming CEO in 2015, she has overseen more than 50 autonomous companies in industrial manufacturing and metal fabrication.

Shirley Wang, a Columbia University trustee, founded and runs Plastpro, a US manufacturer of fiberglass entry doors. Walter Wang is chairman and CEO of JM Eagle, a plastic pipe maker; he began his career at Formosa Plastics Group, founded by his father, Yung-Ching Wang.

“Two thirds of all companies worldwide are family owned and run,” the Wangs said in a joint statement. “We have seen first hand that sustaining a family enterprise requires not only strong business leadership, but also a shared sense of purpose and responsibility across generations.”

The program offers 10 electives, mentoring and coaching, an executive education program, global immersion programs, research and convenings. It reaches about 400 people a year. Its roots lie in a Family Business Management course the school introduced in 2007. It adopted the Global Family Enterprise name in 2020 and has since added an online executive education program, Family Enterprises and Wealth.

The gifts come as a large intergenerational transfer is gathering pace. Cerulli Associates projects that $124 trillion in US wealth will change hands through 2048, with about $18 trillion going to charity.

Columbia’s involvement in the sector extends beyond the business school. In 2020, Columbia University School of Professional Studies launched its master’s in Wealth Management, a 16-month part-time online degree registered with the CFP Board. Tracy Schwartz, then interim program director, told Family Wealth Report at the time that the university had identified growing demand for new advisors and a need for multidisciplinary training in the field.

Universities have been widening their offerings in the area. In 2019, Indiana University Maurer School of Law launched a program to train students for careers in family offices and firms with family office practices.