Rick Segal Bio

Rick Segal is an internationally accomplished speaker and consultant on family business.  Rick has addressed several professional organizations, trade associations and other business forums on the national level including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants three years in a row!  He also did a month long speaking tour for Family Business Australia.

Rick graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.G.S. Degree specializing in business management.  Upon graduation, he joined his family’s mechanical contracting firm where he spent almost 20 years.  During his construction industry tenure, Rick presided over the Michigan Plumbers and Mechanical Contractors Association of S.E. Michigan, served on management committees during union contract negotiations, and he chaired the prestigious Plumbing, Heating Industry Trust Fund.

Currently, Rick maintains a successful insurance practice while he consults with and trains family business stakeholders and service providers. In addition, Rick chairs the highly respected Family Business Council – an organization of family firms and service providers he founded in 1992. Rick has earned the esteemed “Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising with Fellows Status” from the Family Firm Institute, and now mentors those seeking the certificate.  He also is a past member at large of the Family Firm Institute’s think tank called the Body of Knowledge.  In 2008 Rick received a “Certificate of Training” in Civil Mediation from the Oakland Mediation Center as approved by the Michigan Supreme Court Administrator.

For over fifteen years Rick has written family business columns – first in Corporate Detroit and then in Corp! where he now acts as the Family Business Columnist.

Rick is truly unique in the family business arena as someone who has “been there and done that.”  He often “quarterbacks” a family firm’s team of professional advisors in developing and implementing a working succession plan.