Kinnect Calgary: What’s Fair? Compensation, Contribution and Ownership in Family Enterprise
November 4 @ 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm MST
Moderator
Cory Gagnon, FEA, CEC, CEPA, MFA-P (Hons), MA
Senior Wealth Advisor, CI Assante Wealth Management │ Beacon Family Office
Cory Gagnon grew up in a multi-generational family business, where he experienced both the pride and the pressure that can come with enterprise, ownership, and wealth. That experience shaped his belief that legacy is not simply what a family owns or transfers, but what it prepares others to carry forward.
He has been described as The Steward’s Sherpa, walking alongside legacy-minded families of wealth as they navigate the complexities of family, business, ownership, wealth, and succession. Families and their advisors often turn to Cory when the technical answers are available, yet moving forward together requires greater clarity around the relationships, conversations, and decisions that matter most.
His strength is helping families get out of the weeds without losing sight of the details that matter. Cory brings a systems perspective to his work, looking at the individuals involved, the relationships between them, the advisors surrounding the family, and the impact those relationships have on the broader family enterprise system.
By integrating strategy, soul, and succession, Cory helps families see their terrain more clearly, make wise decisions, and build the clarity, alignment, and capabilities to climb their own mountains and steward what matters across generations.
Cory is the Managing Principal of Beacon Family Enterprise Consulting and a Senior Wealth Advisor with Beacon Family Office. He holds the Family Enterprise Advisor (FEA), Certified Executive Coach (CEC), Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA), and Master Financial Advisor – Philanthropy (MFA-P) designations, and is also a Kolbe Certified™ Consultant and Insights Discovery accredited practitioner. He is the host of the Legacy Builders podcast.
Panelists
Penny Leckie, FEA, ICD.D, FCPA, TEP
Founder and President of My AdviseHer Ltd.
As Founder of My AdviseHer Ltd, Penny serves successful individuals and families. Clients appreciate Penny for her matter-of-fact manner, her positive attitude and her creative solutions. These custom solutions are built from wisdom Penny has obtained through the combination of lessons learned by osmosis at the kitchen table of a family enterprise; her professional training as an FCPA, ICD.D, FEA and TEP; and her over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience providing professional services in a boutique tax concierge firm. Penny’s approach endeavors to assist families enhance and align their family values with their financial values. In addition to consulting, Penny provides fiduciary services to corporations, estates and as a Trustee to inter-vivos trusts. Interpersonal connections are the favourite and most important part of Penny’s life, both professionally and personally. She believes every day should contain some laughter.
Trudy Pelletier, FEA, EPA, CEC
President, The Family Stewardship Group Inc.
Trudy Pelletier has 40+ years in communication and leadership development as a Certified Family Enterprise Advisor and Certified Executive Coach. Her experience includes more than 19 years owning and operating her own business specializing in guiding, facilitating, and coaching family enterprises to plan for and navigate exit, transition, and succession, and continuity.
Trudy is a Stewardship Advisor™ specializing in family facilitation and succession planning for enterprising families. A Stewardship Advisor™ is grounded in presence and purposeful inquiry, stewarding families in relationship to wealth, purpose, learning, unity, and decision-making so families thrive across generations.
Trudy leads family facilitation and guides succession conversations where complexity lives – across generations, relationships, roles, and ownership. She works with families to surface what is unspoken, strengthen connections, and support aligned decision-making. Her work supports families to be engaged, accountable, and united through and beyond transition. She brings depth, neutrality, and steadiness to highly sensitive and emotionally charged family conversations. Trudy empowers families with Succession Frameworks™ to create shared purpose, realize potential, and fulfill individual and family commitments and goals.
Max Fortmuller
CEO of Vesta Wealth Partners Ltd. and Vesta Family Office Ltd.
Max leads Vesta Wealth Partners offering clients across Canada investments by curating access to high-quality institutional investments through building products and portfolios that meet the rigorous standards of risk allocations they seek. Max has been in various roles at Vesta since 2017 and has been involved in the Family Office industry for greater than 15 years. Max is also the CEO of Vesta Family Office, in which runs their family’s single-family office, which is now a 6th generation family. Max graduated from Eastern New Mexico University with a B.BA, attending university on a Bull-riding Scholarship (since retired!). Max engages in the Family Enterprise Canada (FEC) community as a Nextgen Ambassador, sits on the FEC Community Council, he is board member to the Charitable Foundation for the Family Board and is a founder of Business Fore Calgary Kids. Max enjoys ranching, camping, and skiing in the Winter with his wife and two young children.