Listed below is our management team. To see each person’s professional biography, please click on their name.

Thomas R. Livergood, Chief Executive Officer

Robert W. Casey, Senior Managing Director, Research

Teddie Ussery, Senior Managing Director, Education & Consulting

Rick Higgins, Senior Managing Director

Vicki Heise, Managing Director

Dave Goetz, Chief Marketing Officer

Timothy Barg, Chief Technology Officer

Kathleen A. Harbke, Executive Assistant and Office Manager

Thomas R. Livergood is Chief Executive Officer of The Family Wealth Alliance. The Alliance is an independent advocate and objective resource to private families and the firms that serve them. The Alliance’s core value is “We Place Families First” and its sustainable competitive advantage is attracting, understanding, and matching key relationships amongst private families and best-in-class firms who share this core value. Launched in 2003, the firm is based in west-suburban Wheaton, Illinois, USA.

Tom has been quoted in Financial Times, Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Bloomberg Markets and numerous other trade and popular print and online media. He has been published in Worth, CCH and Families in Business magazines, and interviewed live on Fox News Network, WGN Radio, and Voice of America.

Tom has spoken at Campden’s European and Asia Pacific Family Office Conferences in London and Hong Kong, respectively, and has twice been a panelist at the Milken Institute’s Annual Global Conference in Beverly Hills. Tom is the opening session speaker at the 2008 IIR Family Office Forum and has recently spoken at the IMCA National Conference, the Schwab IMPACT Conference, and for three years was the lead-off faculty member for the Chubb Advanced School. In addition, he has spoken at the annual meetings and special gatherings by invitation from organizations such as Ashbridge, Harris myCFO, Hub International, Marsh, Pitcairn, and State Street as well as the FLC and Zero Alpha Groups.

Prior to founding The Alliance, Tom was with Family Office Exchange during the early 2000s, Harris/BMO Private Bank during the 1990s, and CIGNA Financial Services during the 1980s. A double graduate of Bradley University, he holds the BA degree in Liberal Arts (1977), and the MBA in Finance (1979).

Robert W. Casey is Senior Managing Director for Research for The Family Wealth Alliance. He leads the firm’s 3rd Annual Multifamily Office Study and was involved from the beginning in the first two MFO studies with The Alliance’s founder, Tom Livergood. He is also involved in a number of consulting assignments for the firm.

Bob is also an independent consultant and long-time observer of the financial advisory industry. Consulting clients include investment firms, banks, financial publishers and other organizations interested in the area of wealth management. He developed Wealth Manager magazine and served as founding editor until its sale by Bloomberg LP in 2005.

He is former managing editor of American Banker, founding editor of Your Company magazine (now Fortune Small Business) and the original planning editor/Money for USA Today. Bob is a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA), the Medill School of Journalism of Northwestern University (BS, MS) and holds a certificate in financial planning from New York University.

Teddie L. Ussery is Senior Managing Director for Education and Consulting for The Family Wealth Alliance. She leads the firm’s Family Education initiative. In addition, she handles many of the Family Office consulting assignments, as well as Private Banking & Trust engagements.

Teddie is also Founder of Family Office Matters LLC. For the past 25 years, Teddie has worked to develop the Family Office and to provide delivery of these services to families through Single and Multifamily Office structures. She most recently managed an MFO/SFO by providing comprehensive asset management, financial and fiduciary planning, as well as investment expertise for a broad range of assets. An expert in multigenerational family wealth management, Teddie’s career has focused on managing diverse challenges such as integrating family dynamics and resolving inter-generational issues concerning assets and inheritances.

As former Senior Vice President of Synovus Trust Company, Teddie founded and led the Family Asset Management Group to sustained growth of $4.2 Billion in assets. She enjoys volunteer positions with a number of boards and foundations as a community and family advocate. Teddie is also a noted national speaker and expert in the Family Office arena and has been quoted in such prestigious publications as Private Asset Management and Bloomberg Wealth Manager. A graduate of Cannon Trust School majoring in Trust Administration, she is a member of several national Family Office entities, including the New York Panel on Family Offices and Family Legacy Group.

Rick W. Higgins is Senior Managing Director for The Family Wealth Alliance. Utilizing his extensive family office experience, Rick is leading the founding team for the Alliance Security Council, an affiliated organization of the Family Wealth Alliance whose mission is to educate, identify and mitigate the non-financial risks private families face.

Tying together his technical understanding of financial markets and portfolio construction with his background in computer programming, Rick has partnered with Ron Surz, a leader in portfolio attribution and market analysis to found Risclarity LLC. Their flagship product StokTrib, is a revolutionary portfolio performance attribution tool that clearly and simply explains the contributors and detractors of portfolio performance including, sector and asset class allocation, security selection and market timing.

In addition to his responsibilities with the Family Wealth Alliance and Risclarity LLC, Rick has been studying filmmaking and travel journalism and has founded Azertion Movement for Cultural Understanding, a non-profit television and movie production organization charged with the elimination of terrorism and hate crimes by connecting differing cultures through five common words; Love, Fear, Learn, Laugh and Play.

Rick's extensive family office, accounting and capital markets knowledge has benefited international private banks, multiple and single family offices, financial planning organizations, insurance companies, hedge fund managers and investment consultants during his tenure as Chief Executive and Chief Innovation Officer at WealthTouch, the company he founded in 2001. WealthTouch was founded as a multi-family office and back office/accounting service provider to the trusted advisers of affluent families. Under Rick's leadership, WealthTouch managed over three billion dollars while reporting on an additional seven billion dollars.

Before establishing WealthTouch, Rick was employed by myCFO, Inc., a leader in the ultra-high net worth market. His employment at myCFO Inc. followed the Fall of 1999 sale of his second startup company, Digital Partner, to myCFO, Inc.

An accomplished speaker, Rick has addressed family office, private banking, insurance, hedge fund, investment and financial planning industry groups both domestically and abroad, as well as written articles in industry trade journals. He has twice been a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award. He also serves on the board of directors of Mile High Youth Corp, a Colorado based non-profit organization. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in Information Systems from the George Washington University. Rick is an avid skier, cook and world traveler. He spends as much time as possible hiking the mountain trails around his home in Golden, Colorado with his wife, Lesley, and his yellow Labrador, Summit.

Vicki Heise is Managing Director for the Family Wealth Alliance. Vicki's career encompasses management experience in corporate Fortune 500, manufacturing, and non- profit sectors. Her experience includes Human Resource Management at Allied Van Lines where she planned, developed, and administered the company's employment, benefit, and compensation programs.

As Office Manager for a non-profit organization, she was responsible for managing the administration, communications, and operations of the organization. She was management liaison between the board and the staff. Her position included hiring staff, contract negotiation, policy/procedure review, and budget development and oversight. During her tenure she oversaw a complete revision of the employee handbook and accompanying policies, managed a 50% growth in staff, and transitioned new leadership twice.

Vicki brings a unique perspective, having entrepreneurial experience as well. She assisted in a manufacturing environment as Office Manager of JaMar Packaging a custom box manufacturer. In this role she dealt with customers, vendors, operations, and accounting. As Operations Manager for a start-up snack company she was responsible for performing cost/benefit analysis, coordinating outside contractors, as well as sourcing ingredients.

Vicki received her Bachelor of Science degree in Personnel Administration & Industrial Relations from Western Illinois University. She has served in a volunteer capacity for several organizations.

Dave Goetz is Chief Marketing Officer for the Family Wealth Alliance. Dave directs all tactical and strategic communications with a coordinated, focused message to our various constituents. Dave also works with our partner firms in such areas as firm profiles, the look and feel of our research reports, and other related projects. Dave is a seasoned veteran who understands the family wealth landscape.

Dave is the founder and president of CZ Strategy (CZStrategy.com), a messaging and marketing agency. CZ consults with professional services firms to create marketplace awareness through publishing, PR, and social strategies. In a joint venture with The Family Wealth Alliance and ARTGEM, CZ Strategy designed the editorial and marketing strategy for The Alliance Report and is responsible for all ongoing publishing and marketing. CZ also acquires and publishes the editorial for The Security Council Briefing. CZ's clients also include management consulting firms, financial services firms, and a merger and acquisitions association. In 2007, Dave also founded an Internet company in the health-care sector called RealityRN.com. He is the author of Death by Suburb (2006, Harper Collins) and the forthcoming book, Native Tongue: Translating Your Message into the Language of Prospects.

Timothy Barg is Chief Technology Officer for The Family Wealth Alliance. Tim leads the firm’s online strategy and infrastructure initiatives. In addition, Tim assists with new product development, research and other consulting projects.

Tim is also founder of ARTGEM LLC, a management consulting firm that serves small business, non-profit and professional service organizations in the areas of online strategy, business intelligence, new product development and general management. Tim has spent his career delivering new products to market and managing the operations of early stage entrepreneurial software, service and non-profit organizations. A strategic yet practical thinker, Tim has a unique ability to navigate visionary leaders and their organizations from idea to market.

Tim is co-inventor of US Patent 6707454: Systems and Methods for Visualizing Multi-dimensional Data in Spreadsheets and other Data. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from DeVry University in Chicago.

Kathleen A. Harbke is Executive Assistant and Office Manager for The Family Wealth Alliance. Kathy brings her 20+ years of experience working in both Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial businesses to The Alliance. In addition to the day-to-day running of the office, she provides administrative support for The Alliance’s management team. She is responsible for setting up conference calls, and coordinating The Alliance’s meetings and events. She also provides executive assistance for The Family Wealth Alliance’s entire management team.

Kathy’s past experiences include working in the financial arena with Primerica Financial Services where she provided financial education for middle income families and helped them take control of their financial lives. She also worked for Kraft Foods as a Customer Service Coordinator, where she functioned as a liaison between Kraft salespeople, buyers, and warehouse managers.

Kathy, a St. Louis, MO native, is a graduate of the University of Missouri at St. Louis where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. She is very involved in the Music Ministry and Dream Ministry and serves on many committees at her parish, St. Isidore, in Bloomingdale, IL.