Carl Gellert and Celia Berta Gellert Foundation Family Business Center

Administrative Office

Malloy Hall, Room 414

Phone: (415) 422-5147

Email: www.usfca.edu/fbc

Website: www.usfca.edu/fbc

To support SOBAM's growing interest in family businesses, a designated space--the Family Business Center (FBC)--is located in Malloy Hall.

The FBC is a central base from which SOBAM faculty, staff, and students, as well as visiting scholars, lecturers, and faculty and students from other departments of the university who have an interest in family business, can: (1) organize and conduct formal and informal educational activities, (2) collaborate on joint research projects and presentations, (3) consult and work with individuals interested and/or involved in running family businesses, (4) access relevant scholarly materials and data, and (5) maintain links with and share information and expertise within the Bay Area family business community and the national business community at large.

Activities

The Center is designed to:

• Support on-campus and online courses for business (and other) students in family business and family business consulting
• Serve as a central place for USF undergraduate and graduate business (and other) students to learn about issues and practices of family businesses, to access internships or part-time employment with family businesses, and to carry out group and individual research projects
• Provide space where faculty, undergraduate business students, MBA students and others will be available to work together on consultation activities with family businesses
• Serve as a laboratory for practitioners, faculty and students to carry out unique family business research and development projects, such as the design of multi-generational, family business, live/work environments
• Commission and disseminate a series of faculty research papers on current topics of special interest to family businesses such as e-commerce, international marketing, and capital formation
• House and support visiting scholars and lecturers
• Sponsor in-residence sabbaticals for practitioners from exemplar family-owned businesses
• House a library of materials specific to family businesses, offering computer-based and other communication links to a wide range of general business information resources relevant in today's competitive markets
• Link to and utilize the technologically advanced information and communications capabilities in the new SOBAM facility for skill development and distance learning activities related to family business
• Maintain active partnerships to share information and expertise with the Bay Area business community and agencies (e.g., SBA, the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, ethnic and other local Chambers of Commerce, and neighborhood non-profit agencies) in order to promote family business and business entrepreneurship