Business Succession Workshop

Business Succession workshop offers unique opportunity.  Features tenured succession-planners from OSU's Austin Family Business Program.

Every farmer, at some point, considers how he or she might transfer the operation to a family member or colleague. Northeast Oregon Economic Development District (NEOEDD) is pleased to announce that Oregon State University’s Austin Family Business Program is bringing two high-caliber professionals to La Grande to help the region’s farmers work through the steps involved.
 
The workshops take place Feb. 12 and Mar. 11 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Union County Extension Office, 10507 N McAlister Rd., in La Grande. To register, visit http://bit.ly/familyag or call 800-859-7609. Seminar registration fee of $325 per family includes all meals, course notebook and materials. At least one person from the current (owning) generation and one person from the next generation must attend both workshops. Registration deadline: Feb. 4.
 
This workshop series will jump-start the transfer of farm management, which is the first step toward both retirement for the current farm owners and transitioning ownership of the farm to the next generation. OSU’s curriculum helps attendees:

• Focus on the future of one’s farm
• Structure dialogue between generations
• Determine a realistic timeline for farm transfer
• Review business structures that can ease ownership transition 
• Meet professional development needs of incoming leaders
• Identify obstacles to shifting management roles
• Improve family confidence in making changes
• Prepare for professional advisor meetings

• Bart Eleveld, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Applied Economics in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and has been an OSU Extension Economist specializing in farm business management for the past thirty-one years.
• Sherri Noxel, Ph.D., is the director of the Austin Family Business Program, in the College of Business, and is the AE Coleman Chair in Family Business.
• Christy Anderson Brekken, J.D., M.S., is an instructor and researcher with the Department of Applied Economics at Oregon State University. She is a contributing author to A Farmer’s Guide to Wind Energy, reviewer for A Farmers’ Guide to GMOs, and has written on topics including farmers’ First Amendment right to avoid compelled fees, dormant Commerce Clause challenges to state laws prohibiting corporate ownership of farms, farmer’s rights to information under the Privacy Act of 1974, administrative appeals process, and contract and tort issues. She edited Teacher’s Manual to State and Local Taxation: The Law and Policy of Multi-Jurisdictional Taxation.
• Inga Chira, Ph.D., is an assistant professor at OSU’s College of Business. She has taught courses in corporate finance, financial statements analysis, financial markets and institutions, investments, financial management, international finance, security analysis and venture finance. In addition to her academic career, Chira has industry experience in corporate finance and financial systems analysis at CitiStreet, ING, UPS and CSX.