Staff
J. Richard "Dick" Emens
Executive Director
A co-founder of the Conway Center for Family Business, Dick serves as Executive Director and chairs the Advisory Board of the organization. He is co-author of the book "Family Business Basics: The Guide to Family Business Financial Success" and has written numerous articles on issues pertaining to family business.
Dick also co-teaches coursework in family business at Ohio Dominican University, which prepares students to be employed in a family-owned or controlled business.
A partner with Emens & Wolper LLP, Dick specializes in business and corporate law; oil, energy and gas law; family business law, and succession planning. He is listed in Best Lawyers in America in corporate law and in oil and gas law. He is a member of the Columbus, Ohio, Michigan, and American Bar Associations and holds Bar Admissions in Ohio, Michigan, and the United States Supreme Court.
Dick is deeply committed to creating academic opportunities for young people. He is a long-time board member of the Ball State University Foundation and is an emeritus trustee of Franklin University, where he is a past board chairman. He is a past president of the Energy and Mineral Law Foundation and has served as a board member of numerous non-profit and for-profit organizations.
Dick received his B.A. at DePauw University and his J.D. at the University of Michigan.
Deana R. Gordon
Associate Director
Deana joined the Conway Center for Family Business in 2008. She manages the Center's operations, as well as its communications and marketing initiatives. She also is responsible for developing its educational seminars, programs and the annual Family Business Awards. She is the initial point of contact for members, prospective members, and the public. In addition, Deana writes and edits material for the Center's publications, the "Monthly Message" and the "Family Business Communicator".
Previously, Deana was a program associate with the American Lung Association® of Ohio. She also held positions with Taylor-Made Strategic Research and Communications, the Ohio Attorney General's Office, and the Ohio Governor's Office.
Deana received her bachelor's degree in communications in 1989 from Ohio Northern University. She resides in Grove City, Ohio with her husband and two sons.
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Connie Nicholson
Peer Group Coordinator
Connie Nicholson is responsible for recruiting and communicating to members and potential members about Conway Center Peer Groups: Women in Family Business, Next Generation Leaders Peer Group, CEOs, CFOs, and Family Business Leaders. Connie serves as the liaison between the facilitator and the group participants, coordinating times, places, dates, and assignments for each group as needed.
Connie has worked with her husband in several family businesses including Connective Management, a sales and management consulting company, The Ecology Group, Sales Fitness, and other ventures.
Connie holds a BS degree in Retailing from West Virginia University.
Jerry Bordner
CEO Peer Group Facilitator
Jerry Bordner leads the Conway Center�s CEO Peer Group, facilitating valuable discussions that focus on business, family and personal leadership issues in a confidential environment that allows members to share their experiences and advice. Jerry started Bordner & Associates as a plastics molding manufacturers sales agency in 1982. Jerry's technical creativity fostered many innovations and led to the inception of Laser Reproductions in 1994 to produce three-dimensional prototypes from computer designs. He currently has 11 patents on products he has developed.
Jerry�s professional career began as a drafter at American Standard Industrial Division, and later led to a position in the engineering department of Crane Plastics. During his almost 20-year tenure with the company, Bordner served as vice president of sales and vice president of product development.
Jerry was named the 2005 Ohio Small Business Person of the Year and the 2005 Columbus District Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration. Under his leadership, Laser Reproductions was honored as a 2005 Family Business of the Year Award finalist by the Conway Center, and a 2005 and 2006 Fast 50 honoree by Columbus Business First as one of the 50 fastest growing companies in Central Ohio. In 2005, the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce recognized Jerry as one of five Small Business Leader Award finalists.
A Columbus native, Jerry graduated from South High School in 1958. He pursued his education at Franklin University with an emphasis in engineering and business administration. He also served in the U.S. Army for a few years, including being stationed in Benghazi, Libya.
He and his wife, Shirley, have been married for over 50 years. They live in Pickerington.
Kelly Borth
Marketing and Sales Peer Group Facilitator
Conway Center board member and chief strategy officer of GREENCREST, Kelly Borth leads the Marketing and Sales Peer Group which is dedicated to helping family business leaders learn valuable tactics for strategically growing their businesses including: brand development, forecasting, market research, and planning. The 10-month series provides Conway Center members with hands-on techniques to take their organization to the next level and takes place on the fourth Wednesday of each month, from September through June.
In 1990, Kelly was inspired to launch GREENCREST, a strategic marketing, advertising, public relations and interactive firm that provides direction for small- and mid-market privately-held companies. As a certified business consultant, an accredited public relations specialist and a certified brand strategist, Kelly leads her team in propelling businesses from market players to distinguished market leaders. Kelly understands what it takes to define a brand and turn that into an increase in market share and solid results. GREENCREST executes communications programs that begin with a solid marketing foundation and result in increased market penetration and awareness.
Kelly is a strategic advisor to CEOs, best selling author, speaker, and columnist for Smart Business magazine. Kelly has been recognized as one of Columbus "Forty under 40" up and coming leaders, a Smart Business Power 100 and is the Columbus Chamber of Commerce Sales Executive Club "Communicator of the Year". She is a 1999 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Supporter of Entrepreneurship Award finalist. Kelly was honored by the National Association of Women Business Owners with a Visionary Award in 2005 and that same year was named Ohio Women in Business Champion of the Year by the Small Business Administration. In 2010 GREENCREST was honored with a Corporate Caring Award and in 2011 a Smart Business Pillar Award. Kelly was honored with the 2011 Kent Clapp Leadership Award.
Kelly serves on the local boards of Neighborhood Design Center, The Entrepreneurship Institute, Association for Corporate Growth, Conway Family Business Center, the American Heart Association Columbus Metro Board, and St. Pius X Finance Council. She is a board advisor for the Inn at Cedar Falls.
Nick Nicholson
Family Business Leaders Peer Group Facilitator
Nick Nicholson facilitates the Family Business Leaders Peer Group which focuses on growth and development education topics to help build business. The group examines and evaluates leads, lists, sales, marketing, exposure, productivity and management including the development of internal processes that can help family businesses prepare for and adapt to growth.
Nick Nicholson is the president and founder of Sales Fitness, LLC which he runs with his wife Connie. Sales Fitness is an Internet company that cost effectively enables other companies to master the proprietary fast growth process Nick developed and used in his own companies. Before Sales Fitness Nick was CEO of The Ecology Group (TEG) an Outsource Expense Management firm based in Columbus, Ohio. The company had rapid, profitable sales growth that led to it being recognized nationally as the #87 fastest growing company in America by Inc magazine. TEG was sold to a Fortune 100 company on September 10, 2001.
Prior to TEG Nick led three fast growing Personal Computer companies. One of these, General Micro, made the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies two times at #8 and #20. Nick started his business career at IBM where he worked for 11 years. At IBM he held roles in sales, management and customer executive training. He was recognized as one of the top 10 IBM sales people out of 2200 nationwide and on the original team the introduced the first IBM PC.
Prior to IBM Nick was a nuclear weapons officer in the USAF. Nick holds a BS in Marketing and a MBA from West Virginia University. He was previously an adjunct professor in the MBA program at Franklin University.
Thaddeus J. O'Brien, PhD
Next-Generation Peer Group Facilitator
Dr. O'Brien was a founding board member of the Conway Center for Family Business. He facilitates monthly Next-Generation Peer Group meetings that explore personal and professional leadership issues in a supportive environment. He frequently moderates educational programs offered by the Center.
Thaddeus is the president and founder of O'Brien & Associates. The firm focuses on executive assessment and development, organizational analysis and interventions through meetings using tailor-made surveys and instruments to identify specific issues. He specializes in working with organizations in major transition - either undergoing changes in leadership or dealing with rapidly shifting market conditions.
For more than 30 years, Thaddeus has worked with companies in industries ranging from hospitals and medical work to professional service organizations and closely held companies. He serves on an array of civic, hospital and professional service boards.
Thaddeus is a licensed psychologist who received his MA and PhD from the University of Chicago. He is an active member of the American Psychological Association, The Ohio Psychological Association, The National Association of Sports Psychologists and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
Bea Wolper
Women in Family Business Peer Group Facilitator
Bea is a co-founder of the Conway Center for Family Business and serves as an Advisory Board member. She facilitates the Women in Family Business Peer Group. In these sessions women discuss issues and opportunities unique to women who own, lead or work within a family business.
In addition, Bea has been a lead instructor for "Building, Operating and Passing on the Family Business" at Ohio Dominican University. Ms. Wolper and her husband, Dick Emens, the Center's Executive Director, co-authored Family Business Basics: The Guide to Family Business Financial Success.
Ms. Wolper is a partner in the law firm of Emens & Wolper LLP, in Columbus, Ohio. Her practice focuses on succession planning, estate planning, general corporate law, contracts and the buying and selling of businesses, with an emphasis on family-owned businesses.
Bea serves as the Ohio President for the International Women's Forum and serves as a director of TB Investment Properties and Insight Bank. She is on the Legal Advisory Board of the Columbus Foundation and Central Ohio Planned Giving. She has served on the executive committees of COSI, Greater Columbus Arts Council, Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce, Mt. Carmel College of Nursing, Greater Columbus News Bureau and Small Business Council.
Bea was selected as one of "America's Most Influential Women" in 2006 and was elected delegate to the White House Conference on Small Business in 1995. She is listed in The Best Lawyers of America and has won numerous awards including Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Columbus Region; the YWCA Women of Achievement Award; and the Women in Business Advocate Award from the United States Small Business Association.