Dr. Lauri Union EDD/MBA focuses her researching, teaching, thought leadership on Family Entrepreneurship, an academic field that focuses on how enterprising families can create value together. Surprisingly, given that family businesses create 70% of global GDP, this question has remained unanswered ?“ until now. Lauri's research leveraging neuroscience, family systems theory, and entrepreneurship provides the first research backed practical methodology addressing this critical question. Her Healthy Family, Healthy Business model (HFHB) provides a pathway for enterprising families to increase their likelihood of achieving more successful businesses, healthier family relationships, and greater individual satisfaction simultaneously.
Lauri work is informed by her academic background and her life experience. She has extensive experience both in family business leadership and entrepreneurship through organizational transformation. At the age of 27, Lauri became president and CEO of her family business, Union Corrugating Company, a deeply troubled manufacturer of building products. Union grew the company significantly and led it to become an industry leader, remaining on the board after a private equity sale. Her work at Union Corrugating is featured in two Harvard Business School cases. She also led the turnaround of a large family business in the food industry from severe distress to stability and profitability in just 12 months as well as the transformation of a private school.
Lauri was also the founding executive director of the Bertarelli Institute for Family Entrepreneurship at Babson College where she now serves as a faculty member teaching her popular Entrepreneurial Families course, one of the most popular classes. She has been recognized three times by Family Capital as amongst the leading global academics in family enterprise.
Union earned her BA in economics Magna Cum Laude from Princeton University and her MBA from Harvard. She recently completed her doctorate in neuroscience of learning at Johns Hopkins University, where her research focused on behaviors and mindsets that lead to family entrepreneurship outcomes. Union has also completed certificate programs in Marriage and Family Therapy, Family Business Advising (CFBA), and Family Business and Wealth Advising (CFWA).
Union is a thought leader, featured in numerous articles, interviews, and case studies. Her most recent articles have been featured in Business Insider, Entrepreneurship Magazine, and Family Business Magazine. Her published cases include Diunsa: An Entrepreneurial Family's Digital Response to COVID-19 which has been published in the journal Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy, Next Gen Transformation at Rotoplas, which is published in the Harvard Business School case library, and Waterston, an approach to family entrepreneurship teaching featured in the book Teaching Entrepreneurship Volume Two (Elgar 2021).
