Resiliency – Challenges Across Generations

The IFOB is a member of the Family Business Alliance, an international association of university-affiliated family business centers with approximately 50 centers dispersed throughout the U.S. and Canada. They meet annually to gather center directors and staff to delve into current issues pertaining to running a successful family business program. 

This year the meeting was going to be hosted by the Ivey School of Business in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With Covid-19, they have transitioned this to a virtual conference and are inviting our members to two programs on June 4 that may be of interest:  Family Business:  Trends, Surveys and Current Realities and Resiliency – Challenges Across Generations featuring our own Anne Hussey from Hussey Seating (six-generation family business), Jennifer and Wendy Yuengling from Yuengling Brewery (America’s Oldest Brewery) and Benco Dental (the largest privately-owned full-service distributor of dental products and services).   

During the Challenges Across Generations session, a panel of distinguished family businesses will share the history of their enterprises, the challenges faced, and the will to endure. This panel is hosted in conjunction with the Family Business Alliance, an international association of university-affiliated family business centers. 

Our panelists include:

• Chuck Cohen, Benco Dental
  

• Anne Hussey, Hussey Seating Company
  
• Wendy & Jennifer Yuengling, D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc.

Moderator:

• Sophia Ungert, Director, University of North Carolina Asheville

• Sue Reilly, Executive Director, Family Business Alliance, Wilkes University / Penn State Scranton

About these businesses:

Yuengling
D.G. Yuengling & Son, Inc., America’s Oldest Brewery is in its sixth generation of a family brewing legacy that began in 1829 in Pottsville, PA. The Yuengling Brewery is still family-owned and operated today and celebrated its 190^thanniversary in 2019. Serving in 22 states, production is supported by two breweries in Pottsville, PA and one in Tampa, FL. Principal beer brands include Yuengling® Traditional Lager, Light Lager, Black & Tan, Golden Pilsner, Premium, Light, Dark Brewed Porter, Lord Chesterfield Ale®, Oktoberfest, Yuengling Hershey’s Chocolate Porter and new Flight by Yuengling, the Next Generation of Light Beer ^TM

 The company’s dedication to family is not just 6 generations of Yuengling’s, but also its generations of employees at its Pottsville and Tampa communities.

Hussey Seating Company
Hussey Seating Company is a sixth-generation, family-owned business working with the seventh-generation. They've been in business since 1835. They have gone from manufacturing long furrowed plows to combat the rocky New England soil in 1835, to fire escapes and ski lifts in the early 1900s. They have been manufacturing spectator seating since 1960. Hussey Seating Company manufactures spectator seating for places like high school gymnasiums, tracks, football fields, professional sports arenas, and performing arts centers.

Benco Dental
Benco Dental is the largest privately-owned full-service distributor of dental supplies, dental equipment, dental consulting and dental equipment services. The company has remained family-owned and is in its third generation of leadership. In 1930, Benjamin Cohen moved to Northeast Pennsylvania and started Benco Dental after six years of traveling from one train station to the next, selling dental supplies out of his suitcase.

For more information contact: brooke@fambusiness.org