Samuel Bruehl

Partner

Sam Bruehl counsels family enterprise-owning families in North America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Sam has significant experience working in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He has spent the past twelve years advising several large family businesses and family offices in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia. Over the course of his work with these families, Sam has developed and run their governance and next-generation development programs.The focus of Sam’s work broadly focuses on working with the family owners of family offices and family businesses to develop strategies and decision-making structures that support ownership and leadership transitions. Sam has extensive experience advising client families on owner and corporate governance, development of family and owner policies, and next-generation development. Sam also has experience working with family enterprises to design and implement family new venture programs and in coaching members of the next generation to support their career development and entrepreneurial endeavors.

Sam has been a facilitator for the Harvard Families in Business Program. Sam also regularly teaches family business topics for the Harvard Family Business Club, MIT Sloan Family Business Club, and Babson College Family Business Club. This past year, Sam co-authored a chapter on Sustaining Entrepreneurship in Family Businesses, which will be included in a book published by Babson College Press in the Spring of 2021. He has also co-authored several articles in Harvard Business Review and Tharwat Magazine.

Sam’s first experience in family business came during high school when he worked in the U.S. office of his uncle’s German-based automotive parts manufacturing business in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The challenges and tensions between his cousin and uncle as they struggled to define their roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities as co-leaders in the family business generated Sam’s interest in organizational design and family businesses.

Prior to co-founding GTA, Sam was a Principal at BanyanGlobal family business advisors where he worked with family businesses around the world. Sam remains a Senior Expert Affiliate with BanyanGlobal.

He holds a BA in Government International Relations from Clark University, graduating cum laude. He later earned an MBA with Honors from Clark University’s Graduate School of Management, where he concentrated in Organizational Behavior and Management.