Abbot Downing is expanding its consulting services for family-owned businesses with the addition of an executive leadership coach to focus on succession planning and development of next generation family business leaders. Nancy Amick brings nearly 20 years of experience to the firm’s national Family Dynamics and Education practice as a consultant who has specialized in leadership development and orchestrating successful business transitions.
Over the last year, the firm has seen a 40 percent increase in requests to help prepare next generation leaders for roles in family businesses and to prepare heirs for the responsibilities of wealth. Abbot Downing, a boutique business within Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management group, was one of the first to offer family dynamics services to ultra-affluent clients in 2004.
“Clients look to us to help translate their values, vision and mission statements into actions,” says Arne Boudewyn, head of the firm’s Family Dynamics and Family Business History teams. “Nancy’s experience in building high-performing teams will be invaluable to the multigenerational family businesses we serve.”
Amick joins a highly credentialed Family Dynamics and Education practice that now includes four consultants with doctorate degrees in behavioral science and master’s degrees in business. The team works with individuals and multigenerational families to develop communication, education and governance strategies that can be applied to family enterprises, philanthropy and preparation of next generation heirs.
Amick joined Wells Fargo in 1998 and previously served in leadership roles in Enterprise Human Resources. Most recently, she served as head of Organizational Effectiveness and Development for Wells Fargo’s Wealth and Investment Management division.
Her team provided strategic consulting in the areas of organizational change and organizational culture as well as leadership development, team performance and effectiveness. Prior to Wells Fargo, Nancy practiced in the field of clinical psychology in California.
She received her executive coaching certification from Columbia University Business School and Teachers College in New York, doctorate and master’s degrees in Clinical Psychology from the California
School of Professional Psychology and a bachelor of art degree in psychology from the University of California. Amick co-authored three invited chapters on how to create a systemic coaching culture within multi-layered organizations for the book, Internal Coaching: Stories of Success in Organizations, published in 2014.
