• Mediator / Facilitator: Helping families in business communicate with clarity, resolve conflict, hold coherent meetings, institute professional governance, and strategize generational transition.
  
• Director, UMass Amherst Family Business Center   Since 1994, providing a learning community composed of educational dinner forums, newsletter (Related Matters), executive roundtables, website, www.umass.edu/fambiz and consulting. The center has won awards for innovation and creativity from International Family Business Program Association and University Continuing Education Association.

Other Experience

• PLAYWRIGHT Created three family business plays, serving as teaching tools; performed 50 times internationally. More at http://www.umass.edu/fambiz/biztheater.htm
  
• ROUNDTABLE MODERATOR Facilitates discussion groups of presidents and entrepreneurs.
  
• TRAINER Produces customized trainings, using improvisation and strategic questioning to improve customer service, sales, and communication.
  
• CHRONICLER Created family business documentaries, interviewing multiple generations, collecting stories for posterity.
  
• “QUOTABLE” EXPERT Regularly quoted about family business, including Fortune, Wall Street Journal, NPR Marketplace, Smart Money, Entrepreneur, Business Week, Newsday, NY Times, CBS Marketwatch, Bloomberg News
  
• SPEAKER Presenter at variety of industry / educational conferences, and university business classes, on family business issues.

Work With His Family’s Business

• President, co-owner of family’s fourth generation retail childrenswear business (also manager, buyer, bookkeeper, tailor, commercial landlord, chair of Chamber of Commerce Retail Division) throughout childhood and 17 adult years. Inspired his play “Tough Nut to Crack,” performed 20 times nationally and abroad.

What Others Say About Ira Bryck

"Ira Bryck helped resolve an extremely difficult and troubling impasse, and achieve the unimaginable: we heard each other's viewpoints and could respect one another again. Ira's approach of focusing on the business relationship, but hearing out some of the family pain was just right for us."
~ Owner of Client Firm

"Ira helped us have fair, balanced discussions that would not have been possible without his guidance. He was instrumental in helping us get through various difficult issues in a most effective way. He has a great understanding of the dynamics of business families and dealing with the challenges they face."
~ Second Generation President, Client Firm

"Ira kept us moving in a positive direction and helped us expand our business. He was the unbiased voice of reason when conflict arose and not burdened us with opinion but fact. He has seen us with all of our warts exposed and not told us we are ugly !!! His direction and wisdom made our situation much less unbearable."
~ Four Siblings in Client Firm

"Ira helped save our volatile family business from detonation. It takes a special person that can bridge generations and personalities."
~ Fourth Generation President in Client Firm

Education and Training

• Trained mediator, Western Massachusetts Mediation Training Collaborative
  
• Professional development with Family Business Directors’ Alliance, Family Firm Institute
  
• B.S. (Education) State University of NY at Buffalo 
  
• Teacher / Director of experimental elementary school, Buffalo NY