Raphael H. Amit
Robert B. Goergen Professor of Entrepreneurship, Management
Chairman, Wharton Global Family Alliance
The Wharton School

Faculty & Staff >> Biography

Raphael (“Raffi”) Amit is the Robert B. Goergen Professor of Entrepreneurship and a Professor of Management at the Wharton School. Dr. Amit founded and leads the Wharton Global Family Alliance (WGFA), a unique academic-family business partnership established to enhance the marketplace advantage and the social wealth creation contributions of global families through thought leadership, knowledge transfer and the sharing of ideas and best practices among influential global families. He also serves as the Academic Director of Wharton Entrepreneurship which encompasses all of Wharton’s entrepreneurial programs.

Dr. Amit holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics, and received his Ph.D. in Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences from Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Dr. Amit’s current research and teaching interests center on family business management, governance, and finance, on venture capital and private equity investments, on entrepreneurship, on the design of business models and on business strategy. He has published extensively in leading academic journals and is frequently quoted in a broad range of practitioner outlets.

Professor Amit has published widely cited, award winning research on a broad range of issues that relate to ownership, management and control of family businesses. He has been working with substantial families around the world on such issues as creating governance systems for families and their businesses, succession, valuation, wealth management and the formation of a family office, and more. Overall, the work of Dr. Amit integrates the behavioral and emotional issues that characterize the life of each family, with the economic and financial issues that must be addressed to sustain family harmony and happiness alongside with the long-term prosperity of the family business.

Professor Amit has held a range of management and Board of Directors positions in various companies. He served as Chair of the Board of Directors of Creo Products Inc. for 6 years. (NASDAQ: CREO until May 2005 when it was acquired by Kodak.) Professor Amit has helped form the Korean Global IT Fund, a $100 million VC fund and has served as the first Chairman of the KGIF Advisory Board. He now serves on the Board of Directors of Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR), a leading wireless communication equipment company, and is a member of the Audit and Compensation Committees of Alvarion.

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