John Messervey is an organization behavior consultant who counsels family-owned businesses throughout the United States and overseas. Among the earliest family business consultants, Mr. Messervey is President and founder of the National Family Business Council, a private consulting group and resource center in Lake Forest, Illinois. John counsels families on entrepreneurship, family communication, governance, succession, and wealth continuity issues. John has consulted with more than 280 high wealth families throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan since 1980. In addition to family wealth issues, John frequently conducts retreats and facilitates unity and harmony among family members.
Mr. Messervey lectures internationally to a variety of groups including the Young Presidents’ Organization, the Menninger Management Institute, JP Morgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Northern Trust, Harris Bank, Hallmark, and the Tokyo LTCB Research & Management Institute. John is a featured family business advisor appearing on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CBS radio and National Public Broadcasting. He is frequently quoted in national publications including the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and Fortune.
John is a founder of the Family Firm Institute (1986) and one of two founders of the first Family Business Study Group at the Menninger Management Institute (1988).
Mr. Messervey has a Master’s degree in Organization Behavior from the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University; he is an Economics graduate of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. John and Marsha live in Vail and Lake Forest and have two grown children.