About PURDUE'S INSTITUTE FOR FAMILY BUSINESS
Our Mission
The Purdue Institute for Family Business (PIFB) is an integrated research, outreach, and teaching program. It offers educational programs that address the major competencies needed for effective family business ownership and management. The goal of the initiative is to prepare family business stakeholders—strategically, financially, and emotionally—for the significant and sometimes unpredictable transitions and decisions that must be made, which determine the success and continuity of the family business.
The Purdue Institute for Family Business (PIFB) provides multi-generational family businesses with research-based business management resources aimed at improving personal leadership performance and driving operational growth. Our ambition is to prepare family business owners, managers, and stakeholders (including non-owner spouses and future owners) to be effective stewards of their family enterprises.
Our People
Maria Marshall
Professor Maria Marshall conducts an applied research, teaching, and Extension program in small and family business management, food marketing, and entrepreneurship. Dr. Marshall received her M.A. from the University of Missouri, Kansas City and her Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Kansas State University.
Her research focuses on small business development and family business management. Her small and family business research is focused on areas such as the resource exchange between the household and the business, family business management, and marketing. She is particularly focused on the resource exchange between household and business when each system experiences a normative and non-normative shock. Dr. Marshall's outreach and teaching programs seek to increase economic development through entrepreneurship.
Renee Wiatt
Renee Wiatt serves as the Family Business Management Specialist for the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, namely for the Purdue Institute for Family Business (PIFB). She works on extension and applied research in family business management and collaborates with partners such as centers focused on agriculture and families, Extension teams focused on agriculture and farm management, and researchers to develop funded programming focused on family business management. She is responsible for coordinating with producer associations to determine family business needs as well as conducting research and fundraising focused on family businesses.
Renee was previously a research scientist at Iowa State University in the Center for Survey Statistics and Methodology (CSSM) as well as an ag and natural resources educator for Purdue Extension in Montgomery County. She holds a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics and a Bachelor of Science in Quantitative Agricultural Economics, both completed at Purdue University.