résumé
IRA BRYCK 255 Strong Street, Amherst, Massachusetts 01002
413 575 5850 [email protected] irabryck.com
EXPERIENCE
Senior Advisor, Giombetti Associates, 2019- present, leadership training and team development using coaching, assessment, feedback, as well as executive search
Director, UMass Family Business Center, Amherst, Mass., 1994- 2019, Outreach program aiming to help regional family businesses through educational dinner forums, peer roundtables, workshops, newsletter, and custom consulting; aka Family Business Center of Pioneer Valley
Radio Host, weekly host on WHMP’s Western Mass Business Show, 2014- 2021, interviewed 350 business owners and expert advisors, hearing their personal stories and the wisdom and perspective within, the show continues after I passed the mike to the next generation
Consultant/ Facilitator, Helping Leaders Grow 1994-present, hundreds of unique engagements with family businesses, improving communication and strategy
President/Co-owner, Barasch’s Better Kids’ Clothes, Freeport, NY 1976-93, was 4th generation leader of the oldest childrenswear store in the US, I wrote the play Tough Nut to Crack about my experience in the family business; duties till the end included buying, selling, marketing, managing, tailoring
Teacher/ co-director, Central Community School, Buffalo, NY 1975-1976 Ran and taught in K-6 experimental “free school”
TEACHING AND VOLUNTEERING
- Presenter to many MBA classes, industry associations, learning groups
- Created training exercises for educators and consultants, using strategic questioning, improv, and peer learning
- Led family business retreats for multigenerational family businesses, and onboarding acquired competitors
- Judge and mentor in activities of the Cornell family business program; mentor speed dating and case competitions
- Volunteer and mentor for E-for-All, an accelerator program for BIPOC startups
- Facilitated roundtables for incubator at local technical community college
- Arranged tours and workshops for entrepreneurs visiting the US, in programs funded by USAID and the State Department
- Widely quoted in the media, about family business and other issues
- Created family business plays, cartoons, blog, advice column; 3 plays performed over 100 times in US, Spain, Mexico, Colombia
AWARDS
- Difference Makers BusinessWest magazine awards program
- Innovative Program Award International Family Business Program Association
- Innovative & Creative Programming Award University Professional & Continuing Education Association
INTERESTS
- cartooning / bicycling / meditating / writing poetry, plays, articles / community organizing
