In 2007, a group of family office professionals working for some of the most prestigious ultra-high-net-worth families in the world found themselves in the same law office in Houston, Texas. The century-old and storied law firm of Vinson & Elkins served as the perfect backdrop for this chance to come together. These veterans of family business quickly found that they had much in common and even more to learn from each other. Soon, the idea of a private meeting between the family offices, with no service providers in the room, began to take shape. From this fateful meeting, investor and entrepreneur Marc J. Sharpe emerged as the driving force behind what is now known as The Family Office Association (TFOA).

Since the organization’s inception, TFOA has operated on a non-commercial basis, connecting family office professionals and giving them a safe place to share ideas, form meaningful personal and professional relationships, and learn from some of the most influential thought leaders in business. The organization’s highly anticipated symposiums have featured world-class speakers who attract billionaire family office executives to participate in this family office community: David Bonderman, Ken Hersh, Kyle Bass, Peter Kraus, John Phelan, Ray Washburne, Anne Griffin Dias, Paul Carbone, Mitch Kapor, Randi Zuckerberg, Neil Bush, and John Goff.

These educational events have come a long way since their first introduction in 2017 when TFOA conceived of an event that would bring the idea of ancient Greece’s symposia to modern times. By encouraging open debate in the spirit of learning, and conducted under Chatham House Rules, TFOA was laying the groundwork for the learning and networking that have become core parts of its members’ experience.

Organizing such high-quality events takes a great deal of energy and relationship capital, especially since speakers are not paying, or being paid, to participate. TFOA founder Marc Sharpe has built these relationships through a long career in the investment and finance sectors, working for companies including Wasserstein Perella, Goldman Sachs, and a number of private family offices. His experience working for multi-generational family businesses has taught him a great deal about the mindset of both family office principles and the executives who work for them.

Sharpe has applied his knowledge to create a safe environment where these professionals can discuss the common concerns they face and their solutions to problems that face a very select few families in the world. And all of this takes place away from third-party service providers and the aggressive investor relations and sales professionals they often face at other conferences and business events.

“TFOA has put stakeholder experience and relationships above short-term monetization and has chosen to focus instead on creating a pure peer network of like-minded family office executives, essentially for free,” Sharpe commented. “This is in part due to TFOA’s founding principles of privacy and non-solicitation, but also due to an inherent understanding that when one attempts to to monetize a network like this, what makes it trusted, and special, quickly disappears.”

Despite his role in establishing TFOA, Sharpe appears content to stay largely in the background and serve as a facilitator while his organization’s members reap the benefits. His focus on providing value to stakeholders without exploiting them for profit echoes the ethos of “conscious capitalism,” which is also the driving ideology behind Sharpe’s current employer, Satori Capital, where he has served as an operating partner since 2019.

Sharpe has also demonstrated his belief in the principles of conscious capitalism by creating and teaching a family office curriculum for MBA students as an adjunct professor at both Rice University and Southern Methodist University.

“Conscious capitalism” may seem like only a buzzword to many, but for organizations like TFOA, it is a way of life. TFOA may have a reputation for being hard to access, but it is far from being just a highly exclusive club for billionaires. Through its continued investment in its members and a desire to continuously share knowledge, TFOA has created a unique peer network for the family office sector and a valuable hub for global family offices to come together.