Maryann Bell joins Jonathan Goldhill on the Disruptive Successor Show
Wingspan Partner Maryann Bell returned to The Disruptive Successor Show with host Jonathan Goldhill for a candid conversation on one of the most misunderstood ideas in family business: the assumption that being fair means treating everyone equally. Drawing on her experience advising multi-generational families across the US, Latin America, India, and the Middle East, Maryann unpacked why default equality often creates the very tensions families are trying to avoid, and how thoughtful governance can realign ownership with contribution, responsibility, and stewardship.
Love Is Equal. Ownership Should Reflect Contribution.
Maryann opened with a distinction that grounds the entire conversation. The love a family feels for each member is equal. But ownership of a business is a different question altogether. “Authority, decision making, and value creation—the merit that the entire family benefits from—is often driven by one individual,” she explained. When ownership ignores that reality, resentment builds quietly, especially in the next generation, who watch a parent carry the weight while others share the rewards.
Maryann shared a moment from a session she led with the University of Chicago Booth School of Business family business club. A father was sitting in the audience accompanying his son, and she asked him whether he thought equal was fair. His answer stuck with her. He said he had thought so at first but was starting to realize it wasn’t. That shift, from assuming equal is the safe default to recognizing it can quietly undermine a family business, is one Maryann sees often.
Equal ownership feels safe. It feels like care. But Maryann argues it can quietly dismantle the meritocratic culture that healthy businesses depend on. As Jonathan put it during the episode, “Equal is easy. Fair requires leadership.”
Sweat Equity, Distribution Policy, and the Tools That Work
So what does fair actually look like in practice? Maryann walked through several governance tools that families can use to bring ownership into alignment with contribution:
- Sweat equity pools that allow owner-operators to earn additional ownership over time based on the value they create.
- Distribution policies that let non-operating family members hold a minority stake and share in economic value, without controlling the business.
- Codes of conduct and employment policies that set clear expectations for any family member who wants to work in the business.
- Compensation committees that separate pay decisions from family dynamics and reinforce a culture of merit.
- Advisory boards that bring in external perspective and depersonalize hard conversations.
Some families take it further. Maryann referenced one family that limits how many relatives can work in the business at once and requires non-family managers to approve any promotion. Others have policies that exclude non-operators from ownership entirely. The right structure varies. What matters is that the family has intentionally decided.
A $2 Billion Lesson in Misaligned Ownership
Maryann shared a case that brought the principles to life. Three brothers inherited a business in equal shares. Within a decade, one stepped away to pursue his own venture. The remaining two restructured to 45-45-10, keeping the departing brother as a minority holder for symbolic and family reasons. It felt right at the time.
Then the business grew. And grew. From a modest operation to a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, driven almost entirely by one brother’s leadership. The other two contributed in different ways, including as respected representatives of the family in the broader community. But the value creation was concentrated, and the math of the next generation made the misalignment impossible to ignore. The brother who grew the business had more children than his sibling. If nothing changed, his children would each end up with smaller ownership stakes than their cousins, despite their father being the one who created the value. That looming reality is what brought the issue to the surface.
The conversations that followed weren’t easy, and they’re still ongoing. But they are happening, and that’s the point. Maryann emphasized that having an external advisor in the room played a key role in reframing the issue, depersonalizing it, and creating space for an honest reset. She was candid about what that looks like in practice. “We’re the bad guy,” she said. “And we’re not very popular for a few months.” That’s often the cost of progress, and families that accept it tend to come out stronger on the other side.
Principles Before Lawyers
When families sense that their ownership structure no longer fits, Maryann’s advice is simple. Don’t start with the legal documents. Start with the principles.
Get everyone in a room. Talk about goals before you talk about share classes. What do we want this business to be? Who should be rewarded for what? How do we want to treat family members who aren’t operators? Once those answers are clear, the legal structures can be built to support them. Doing it in the other order tends to entrench positions and stall progress.
She also stressed that family meetings and business meetings need to be separate. A kitchen-table chat once a year is not a board meeting. As businesses grow, governance must grow with them. “Families grow faster than businesses,” Maryann said. “Therefore, you need to have an evolution of your governance.”
Engaging the Rising Gen
The most effective families create a clear pathway for the Rising Gen. Career policies that require outside experience. Merit-based advancement. Sweat equity programs that reward contribution. These structures act as a magnet, pulling talented family members toward the business rather than pushing them away. Maryann highlighted one family that uses summer family meetings to invite Rising Gen members to pitch their own business ideas and receive feedback from the group. The family becomes a kind of advisory board, and entrepreneurship becomes part of the family’s shared language.
The Takeaway
Fairness in a family business isn’t about keeping everyone comfortable. It’s about aligning ownership, contribution, and responsibility in a way that sustains both the business and the family across generations.
These are difficult conversations. They require leadership, courage, and often an outside perspective to move them forward. But avoiding them rarely works. The resentment doesn’t go away. It just compounds.
