Seven members of the next generation of family business leaders recently graduated from the UNH Center for Family Business Leadership Development Program following a year of intense study that helps them prepare to assume greater leadership roles in their family businesses.

Attendees developed confidence and plans for the future, and learned to apply new management skills to company projects and build a peer network of support. Much of the learning was centered around real-life issues from the participants' own family business experience. Together they learned to be better leaders and to share solutions to common problems.

The 2011 graduates are Meghan Barros and Joshua Boissoneau, Lake Opechee Inn and Spa, Lakeport; Ken Gudek Jr., Technical Needs, Salem; Seth Ames, Twin State Sand and Gravel, West Lebanon; Davis Drolet, General Linen Service, Somersworth; Derek Skillings, Skillings and Sons, Amherst; and Joshua Robinson, Checkmate Payroll Services, Concord.

"The UNH Center for Family Business Leadership Development Program has been hugely beneficial to my personal and professional growth. More than anything else, this program has provided me with invaluable insights into who I am now, who I want to be and who the family business needs for me to be, in order to lead our company in the future," said Joshua Robinson, director of sales and marketing with Checkmate Payroll Services.

The program was taught by Vanessa Druskat, associate professor of organizational behavior and management. The program included sessions on understanding effective leadership, building self-awareness and a personal vision, motivating employees, building a synergistic team, managing confrontation and conflict, and becoming a resonant leader in the organization.

The Center for Family Business, under the Whittemore School of Business and Economics and the Graduate School, is sponsored by Mass Mutual Financial Group; Moitoza Consulting; Baker Newman & Noyes; Pierce Atwood; Management Planning, Inc.; and Optima Bank and Trust. It is a membership program to provide owners and managers of entrepreneurial businesses with an opportunity to exchange ideas and information and to discuss business challenges, concerns, and solutions. For more information, visit http://www.familybusiness.unh.edu/.