What happens when two next-generation family business leaders marry each other and try to lead both family businesses at the same time? In Episode 25 of ABFI Table Talk, host Matt Knight sits down with Sean LeLacheur and Milica Mrdjenovich, a husband-and-wife duo, each running a separate family enterprise.
Sean is President and CEO of Western Moving Solutions and Matco Moving Solutions, the fourth generation of a moving and logistics business that traces back to 1906, which his father, Ted, restarted in 1995, and now spans six locations and more than 200 employees. He last appeared on Table Talk in EP22 alongside Ted. This time, he's sitting across from his wife. Milica "Millie" Mrdjenovich is VP Brand & Marketing at Nova Hotels, the Edmonton-based hotel group founded by her father Mike, who started Nova Construction in 1976 and pivoted to hospitality in 2000. Today, the group runs 14 hotels with nearly 2,000 rooms and over 750 employees, and Millie works alongside her sister, Alexa Mrdjenovich, Nova Hotels' CEO.
The conversation digs into what married life actually looks like inside two separate family enterprises: how decisions get made when both partners are owners-operators, why "balance" is the wrong framing for the way they live, what they've learned from each other's family dynamics – Sean's smaller, quieter only-child upbringing versus Millie's large, loud, "Eastern European fiery" family of seven – and what they're modelling for their young kids, including their stance on no free passes into either business.
For anyone in a family enterprise raising the next generation, marrying into a family business, or wondering how two careers in two enterprises can fit under one roof, this episode offers a rare, candid look at the marriage and partnership that makes it sustainable.
Learn more about ABFI at
https://abfi.ca/, connect with Matt Knight at [
matt.knight@ualberta.ca](mailto:
matt.knight@ualberta.ca) or on LinkedIn at
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattknight/. Learn more about Matco Moving Solutions at
https://matco.ca/ and Nova Hotels at
https://novahotels.ca/This video podcast series is proudly produced by the team at Road 55 - located in Edmonton, Alberta.
For more information, please visit:
www.road55.ca