Thunderbird announces new Masrin Center for Global Entrepreneurship and Family Business

The Thunderbird family is expanding with a new addition: the Masrin Center for Global Entrepreneurship and Family Business, named after distinguished Thunderbird alumnus, Jimmy Masrin ’87. Masrin is the President, Director, and CEO of PT Caturkarsa Megatunggal based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The company is a family business that has diversified across several industries including chemicals, mining, fuel distribution, and supply chain and logistics businesses.

“In times of accelerated change, family business owners and leaders have an important role in promoting innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to the many challenges we are currently facing,” Masrin said. “I wanted to invest in family business and entrepreneurship at Thunderbird to build much-needed bridges between the communities of entrepreneurs and business leaders, helping us all better prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution."

The shared vision for the center is to create a diverse and inclusive community of family businesses, offices, and enterprises that are globally focused and impact-oriented while embracing technology. With a world undergoing rapid change and disruption, family businesses have the opportunity to play a protagonist role in driving innovation and economic resilience, given that family-owned firms account for two-thirds of all businesses around the world, generate around 70 to 90 percent of annual global GDP, and create 50 to 80 percent of jobs in the majority of countries worldwide. “A well-run family business can be the most powerful form of business. Thunderbird’s intersection of family business and entrepreneurship is an incredibly effective way to add value in the world, and do so in a sustainable and socially conscious manner,” said Andy Unanue ’04.

Soft Launch in Japan

During Thunderbird’s Alumni Reunion in Japan in 2019, the first group of families gathered to learn about global disruptive innovation and to discuss best practices for succession and family governance. The meeting was held both in Tokyo and Kyoto and featured prominent guest speakers Edward Jung and Glenn Edens, two icons of the technology world, as well as cultural visits and peer-to-peer sharing.

"As a second-generation member of a family office, I’ve had opportunities to attend many events and programs focused on family businesses,” said Andy Ogawa ’98. “What’s distinctive about the community created by Thunderbird's new center is the immediate bond generated by a shared global mindset and curiosity for the role of startups and new technologies in improving the world, and the diversity of perspectives represented in the programs," Ogawa said.

Offerings for Students and Alumni

The Masrin Center will offer families who are interested in embracing innovation strategies a variety of tools to prepare for the new market and societal conditions established by globally disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and climate change. The center's goals are to bring family enterprises together to learn from each other, help them succeed with generational succession, increase cross-business collaboration and investing, and leverage their value systems to improve their chances of thriving during change, and to positively impact the world.

The Masrin Center distinguishes itself from other universities’ entrepreneurship programs through a unique focus on two core principles: inclusion, and global mindset. Family businesses and offices represent a frequently overlooked community in global entrepreneurship ecosystems. Despite their power and influence in local economies worldwide, the average family enterprise currently allocates a relatively small proportion of its net worth, resources, and network to supporting investments in startups, venture capital funds, and training entrepreneurs and future founders. There is an opportunity for this situation to rapidly change with new generations increasingly prioritizing new tech trends, more inclusive value systems, and entrepreneurial creativity. The vision of the Masrin Center is to engage Thunderbird’s vibrant worldwide alumni network with the technology and startup leaders of tomorrow.

Programs for intergenerational collaboration and gender diversity will launch and take center stage throughout 2021. Women in families will have a platform to intimately and frankly discuss some of the challenges they face, which will also serve as a networking forum for sharing resources and training opportunities in new skills that will help amplify their contributions to their family’s business activities.

The Thunderbird Global Youth Hackathon is an example of one initiative that will channel the energy and creativity of today's youth into innovative solutions for improving people’s lives as they transition into a new post-pandemic normal. Young members of Thunderbird’s community will join forces to envision solutions for today’s most pressing challenges, reinforcing a sentiment of unity, leadership, and agency, while generating opportunities for selfemployment in extremely challenging market conditions.

“Before joining Thunderbird, I worked closely with a prominent family office in Indonesia for many years,” said student Joseph Daud ’21. “One of the most important lessons I learned during my master’s program is the importance of entrepreneurship in helping family businesses build up their ability to thrive during times of disruptive change and acting with startups' perspectives in improving and innovating products or services. I am delighted that at Thunderbird we can find a dedicated center that bridges these two worlds,” said Daud.

Eva Vazquez serves as the center’s Director, bringing extensive experience in operations and entrepreneurial ecosystem development, having contributed to the design and implementation of the startup cluster in Puerto Rico. Vasquez has a master’s in Research Methodology in Management Science from IE Business School in Madrid and she offers insights from her doctoral research on entrepreneurship and mentorship.

The Masrin Center is led by Rebeca Hwang, who serves as its Senior Director in addition to her capacity as Professor of Practice at Thunderbird. Educated at MIT and Stanford, Ms. Hwang brings more than a decade of experience as an educator of technology entrepreneurship and design and as a contributor to the creation of startup communities in dozens of countries all over the globe. Rebeca is also a venture investor, tech entrepreneur, and public speaker. Her career includes working extensively with family businesses and family offices that are interested in capitalizing on opportunities brought by change.

“Bridging the world of family businesses and the ecosystem of entrepreneurs has the potential to unleash a torrent of solutions for society's most pressing challenges,” said Hwang. “And the Masrin Center is committed to bringing these communities synergistic opportunities with diversity and inclusion as guiding principles.”