Debbie Bing

Debbie Bing, President and Principal, began at CFAR as a Project Consultant in 1998, became an Associate in 1999, and a Principal in 2006. Her assumption of the Presidency in 2016 represents the shift to CFAR’s Second Generation of Leaders. Debbie is also a member of CFAR’s Board of Directors and co-leads the firm’s Family Enterprise and Owner-Led Business practice. As a second-generation owner of CFAR, she draws on personal experience in working through the dilemmas of strategy and succession.

Debbie views conflict as a useful starting point for a productive exchange about organizational priorities and performance. She has led negotiation teams in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe, and uses that expertise to help business leaders and executive teams in family businesses, entrepreneurial organizations, universities, associations and foundations to build collaborative approaches to their most pressing business challenges. She is especially skilled at helping clients make decisions and implement change in highly politicized, emotionally charged environments as they manage the multiple pressures of mission, performance, culture, competencies and competition. Her methodology brings all appropriate players into the process of generating options, making decisions, and committing to a plan so that they “own” the solution.

In 2019, Debbie was elected Board Chair of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), where she was previously honored as a Fellow in October 2014 and from which she earned both the GEN and Advanced Certificates in Family Business Advising.

She is an experienced speaker and has presented to groups including FFI, the Council on Foundations, the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (from which she won The Bridger Award in 2008 for her paper, “Crowding Out the Space: The Weakness of a Strong Leader”), the Northeastern University Center for Family Business, the Healthcare Business Women’s Association and numerous Boston area business groups. In addition, she has been published in People & Strategy Magazine, and has had several articles in Family Business Magazine.  She is also member of the Board of Directors of E4TheFuture, a member of the Professional Advisory Committee of the Boston Foundation, and an adjunct faculty member at D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University.

Debbie holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Peace and Conflict Studies from Haverford College and a Master’s of International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University.