Jill Barber is President of CYMI Holdings, which serves as the family office for the Mathile Family. Jill joined CYMI in 1999 just prior to the family’s sale of Iams Pet Food Company to Procter & Gamble.
With more than two decades of experience advising three generations of the Mathile family, Jill has become a widely respected voice in the global family office community.
On today’s episode, we do a deep dive into family offices – how they work, how they evolve, and how they support the needs and legacy of the family.
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0:51) – Where did Jill grow up?
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2:17) – How did Jill find her way into the family office space?
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4:00) – What questions should families ask if they are thinking of setting up a family office?
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8:11) – How should family offices decide which services to build in-house and which to outsource?
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10:46) – How does the family office engage with younger generations of family members?
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13:24) – How do you approach governance in a family office?
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17:14) – How has the family office evolved over the years?
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20:52) – Do family offices have a “culture”?
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23:35) – What are some defining moments during Jill’s career at CYMI?
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25:22) – What questions are top of mind for family offices today?
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28:12) – What is the “why” that drives Jill?
What is The Road to Why?
From start-up entrepreneurs to multi-generational family business owners, most founders are driven to succeed for reasons well beyond making money. Whether it’s a passion for reshaping their industry, building a family legacy or advancing the causes they care most about — or, in many cases, all of the above — exploring the larger “why” of their life’s work offers insights into how successful leaders operate and what is really important to them.
On The Road to Why, host Eric Czepyha, Director of Business Services at Northern Trust, speaks with business owners, entrepreneurs and visionaries about business, family, wealth and legacy and shares advice and life lessons from those who have found success in ways expected and unexpected.