Kate Barnwell

Kate is a consultant with The Family Business Consulting Group helping families define, align and realize their goals for ownership and effective management of their enterprise. She advocates for governance policies and communication practices that sustain sound family decision-making.

Experienced in business planning and financial analysis, Kate encourages family owners to stay well-informed and communicate with management regularly on business performance.  Skilled at collaborating with attorneys, tax advisors and valuation specialists, Kate orchestrates families’ advisor teams to plan for and address complex issues that can arise with changes in leadership or ownership. 

She became a family business consultant to build on decades of work with and for family businesses, most recently as a non-family manager serving a G2 owner group.  Kate values lessons learned from her work with accomplished family executives in fine art, commercial real estate and hospitality. 

She was raised by an entrepreneur and is empathetic to the founder’s drive for care and control of both the business and the family.  At the same time, Kate recognizes that good things happen when next-gen family members are supported in discovering their strengths and capacity to lead. She has a particular interest in women leaders and their agency within family groups.