About Us - Families for Families

Lonnie Gienger is a strategic innovator and legacy architect dedicated to building businesses, investments, and families that help build a better world.

He is Partner & CEO of Wilkinson, a family-owned multifamily real estate investment platform that has produced industry-leading returns and societal value for more than three decades. He also served as Chairman and CEO of a senior-housing organization that he scaled from early stage to over 2,000 employees across 18 states, and has helped build and scale multiple entrepreneurial ventures.

Beyond business, Lonnie is passionate about developing foresight-driven leaders who build organizations and families capable of meaningful change across generations. He believes innovative thinking, strategic collaboration, and values-driven leadership are essential to solving complex global challenges and creating sustainable, purpose-anchored legacies.

For decades, he has co-founded and chaired leadership development organizations that have equipped thousands of executives worldwide. He is the author of Beyond Business: How Your Company Can Build a Better World, which articulates his experience and philosophy for integrating business success with societal impact. Lonnie and his wife, Shelley, also recently completed Beyond Fortune: A Future-Shifting Story for Families, a transformative allegory designed to help families thrive across five dimensions of wealth.

Lonnie is widely recognized for his thought leadership in holistic business strategy, multigenerational family transformation, and responsible investment success. A dedicated lifelong learner, he has spent more than 25 years applying the same systems-thinking and future-focused strategies he uses in business to the development of his own multigenerational family—guided by insights from many high-impact families of wealth.

As a result, Lonnie is frequently sought out by family offices and multigenerational family enterprises looking to build resilient, values-aligned, purpose-driven legacies that extend far beyond financial capital to create enduring societal value.

 Cheryl K. Goodman is a technology executive, journalist, author, and thought leader with deep experience bridging tech innovation, practical application of AI and human-centered strategy. She currently serves as CEO of FindGood.tech, a group that drives and operationalize artificial intelligence training   portfolio companies. 

Her focus  is on making AI accessible, ethical, and practical. Her career spans two decades where she held executive-level go-to-market positions at MP3.com, Qualcomm and Sony Global leading go-to-market robotics and autonomous driving launches including aibo and Sony's Vision S  (Feela).  

She is author of the book "How to Win Friends and Influence Robots: An AI Guide for Non‑Tech Brilliant Minds" helping businesses translate complex AI ideas into actionable, socially conscious insights. 

Beyond corporate roles and authorship, Goodman is a respected speaker, educator, and community-builder in the AI/tech ecosystem. She frequently delivers keynotes on topics like technology culture, disruption, AI adoption, and human-centered technology strategies.  She also serves as Vice Chair of Startup San Diego, where she helps produce technology-focused programming and supports regional tech entrepreneurship and innovation. 

Throughout her career, Goodman’s work has been driven by a commitment to making disruptive technologies — understandable, responsible, and beneficial for real people and organizations. Her blend of technical fluency, communications savvy, and grounded pragmatism enables  her to be a bridge-builder: between engineers and executives, between complex innovation and accessible strategy, and between technological possibility and human impact. 

Steep, a 35-year operating executive in Silicon Valley serving at HP, Apple, IBM Lexmark, Microsoft, and Xerox PARC snd Stanford. He is a leading voice on transforming technology into pragmatic opportunities.

Steep founded and ran the Stanford Engineering School's Disruptive Technology Program, where he also created and taught a new course for Ph.D. engineers on Reinventing Innovation. 

He curated the Family Office conferences for 4 years and set the standard for practical application and theoretical understanding of technology disruption. 

In his career, he's launched  and led a series of industry firsts including; 

• Led Apple's project on the industry's first digital camera
• Software for the IBM PC - Assistant Family Series
• Started and grew IBM Lexmark's pre-IPO global business in Asia
• Worked at Microsoft in the Gates office of the CTO under Gary Flake, founding the company's first Innovation Outreach Program
• Participated on the launch of Microsoft’s Azure Cloud platform
• Ran global commercial operations as SVP at the world-renowned Xerox PARC
• Author, First Light of Day  about the impact of technology on our society, which became a business bestseller
• He helps companies understand how to transform disruptive tech into a pragmatic opportunity
• Is an serial investor 

Bob Bernstein — Prism Family Office & Co-Founder, Guitars Over Guns a nonprofit that provides music-based mentorship to young people in underserved communities. Since launching the organization in 2008 with his son, musician and educator Chad Bernstein, Bob has played a central role in shaping GOGO’s growth from a grassroots idea into a nationally recognized youth-development program. His financial leadership, governance structure, and long-range planning have enabled the organization to scale while maintaining strong outcomes for students, mentors, and partner schools.

Before dedicating much of his time to philanthropy, Bob built a distinguished career in global finance and investment management. A summa cum laude graduate of the Wharton School, he held key roles at IBM, Delaware Investment Advisors, and later Brinson Partners, where he helped develop emerging markets as an institutional asset class. His work took him to dozens of countries and placed him at the center of major shifts in global capital markets. 

After Brinson’s acquisition, he founded Prism Family Office and co-founded a retirement-services platform later integrated into Envestnet.

Bob brings this same disciplined, analytical approach to Guitars Over Guns, pairing a strong social mission with sustainable financial strategy. His commitment to expanding access to music, mentorship, and positive role models reflects a belief that opportunity, consistency, and human connection can change the trajectory of a young person’s life.

He continues to serve as a board leader, advisor, and advocate for arts-driven youth empowerment.

Business Development

Jeremiah Baker is known as a Growth Investor, Cybersecurity Expert, Ethical Hacker & Speaker who has spent nearly two decades helping companies strengthen their defenses against cyber threats — by frankly hacking them first. 

Raised in a large foster-family environment, his upbringing around entrepreneurial parents (who ran businesses such as auto repair shops, restaurants, and hair salons) instilled in him a hustle mindset and compassion for helping business owners. 

He began building his career during the early internet boom: while in college he started a web-development and advertising business, then gradually evolved into growth marketing and client acquisition for various industries — from SaaS to cybersecurity to e-commerce. 

In 2006 he formally launched his own brand, offering growth-investing and marketing consulting under JeremiahBaker.com — helping clients “get, keep, grow, and multiply happy clients via a structured referral program.” 

Over decades, his clients’ combined exit value reportedly exceeded $2 billion.

Recognizing the explosion in cyber risk, Baker built deep expertise in ethical hacking — serving as co-founder of a cyber-security firm and personally delivering professional “penetration testing” services to a wide range of organizations (banks, hospitals, corporations, casinos, governments). 

He authored a book titled "Confessions of a Hacker" which uses real-world hacking stories to expose vulnerabilities and teach ways to defend against them.

As a speaker, he’s known for dynamic, story-driven keynotes that make cyber risk tangible — talking at conferences including summits for financial services, retail tech, and government audiences. 

Beyond his business and security work, he also serves in advisory and mentoring roles including the advisory board of Stanford Global Projects Center, helping advise on digital-city and technology strategy projects. 

Kathleen Tepley is the Founder and CEO of Los Angeles Consulting Group (LACG), an international business development practice serving family offices, closely held operating businesses, philanthropic foundations, and differentiated service providers in the private capital markets. Originally known as Tepley Consultants, the firm was founded by Kathleen in 1980, establishing a proven track record spanning over two decades in strategic business growth.

Under Kathleen's leadership, LACG operates two distinct business development advisory practices. The network enhancement practice provides strategic counsel and carefully curated introductions to relevant business partners within LACG's extensive ecosystem. 

Through the event curation practice, Kathleen and her team design and produce both public and private events for the global private capital community, including notable gatherings such as the Lido Family Office Investment Symposium, which was held in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica from 2010 to 2019, and The Original Mixer, a networking event for business professionals held three times annually in Los Angeles.

Beyond LACG, Kathleen is deeply involved in family office initiatives. In 2021, she joined the Family Office Association in Greenwich, Connecticut, as Managing Director to lead its next phase of growth, and now runs the US initiative for the Global Family Office Community out of London. She is also an active advisory member and participant in exit planning communities, including the Conejo Valley and Greater Los Angeles EPI Leadership Committees, The Global 51, and the Global Family Office Community.

Kathleen's business partners recognize her for her personal warmth, tireless dedication, and sterling reputation within the industry. Her unique ability lies in converting genuine, empathic connections into sustainable, mutually beneficial success stories that inspire others. With a history of charitable giving and volunteer work, Kathleen remains committed to building meaningful relationships across the family office, investor, private equity, venture, and business professional communities.