Transforming conversations about wealth

At Shaking the Tree, we have a multi-disciplinary team in place to manage the operations of our organization and to serve as the Creative Team. Their insight and experience from a variety of areas enables us to consistently deliver a high level of professionalism and authenticity to all our projects and events.

Shaking the Tree Creative Team

Paul McKibbin, Co-Founder
Paul McKibbin is a Managing Partner of Family Office Metrics, a firm that provides targeted business consulting on management, operations and technology applications for family offices. Previously the director of GPFN, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guggenheim Partners (GP), he developed its highly secure “Virtual Family Office” websites which provided a blueprint for knowledge management while enhancing the overall interaction of family members, trustees, staff and various advisors. Before his firm’s acquisition by GP in December 2004, Mr. McKibbin was the founder and president of Private Family Networks (PFN), a vice president with SEI and a consultant with The Metropolitan Group. An entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience creating financial software solutions, he received a BA in English and MA in organizational behavior from the University of Pennsylvania.

David Kersnar, Co-Founder
David Kersnar is a Founding Ensemble Member of Chicago’s Lookingglass Theatre Company where he has served as Artistic Director and head of its Education and Community programs. As our group’s artistic influence and leading practitioner, Kersnar has written and directed several interactive case studies for the financial services industry and managed several educational workshops using theatrical techniques in problem solving exercises. Additionally, Kersnar has designed, directed and performed in over 50 productions with Lookingglass Theatre Company, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Children’s Choir, Chicago Children’s Theatre, Northwestern University, Roosevelt University, has also appeared with the Goodman, Steppenwolf and Remains Theatre companies, and performed critical roles in numerous television, radio and film productions. He received a BS in Theatre and Performance Studies and an MFA in Directing from Northwestern University.

Maryann Fernandez, Co-Founder
Over the past 14 years, as a Shaking the Tree Co-Founder and member of our creative team, Maryann Fernandez has produced a variety of philanthropic and wealth management conferences, and facilitated and co-wrote many of our most successful living case studies. As Founder & President of Philanthropy Indaba, a unique consultancy that develops customized philanthropic journeys and opportunities for learning and service, Fernandez leads high net worth individuals and families out of the boardroom and into the field, bringing donors closer to a deeper exploration and understanding of themselves, each other, and the world in which we live. Fernandez has also consulted with several non-profits including world-renown Ashoka – Innovators for the Public and Educate Girls Globally, helped launch a network of over 150 philanthropists, and served as Vice President of Family Education Services at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.

Edward P. Monte, Ph.D., Creative Team Associate
Edward P. Monte is co-founder of Family Solutions Group, L.L.C., an interdisciplinary firm providing consulting and advisory services to high net worth families, single and multifamily offices, family businesses and their advisors. His specialty is in parent-adult child relationship issues that impact family businesses and family offices. A particular focus in his consulting, research and writing is the complex dynamics between fathers and sons in business together. In addition, Dr. Monte consults to legal and financial advisors concerning the unique issues they encounter working with high net worth families as well as the more general human side issues advisors must attend to in their work with any individual. Dr. Monte is a member of the Family Firm Institute, on faculty in the Next Generation Leadership Institute of the Family Business Center at Loyola University of Chicago and regularly presents in business schools, accounting and consulting firms nationally. Also, as a third generation son in a fourth generation family business, Dr. Monte brings a unique perspective to his consulting practice, writing and teaching.

Shaking the Tree Executive Board

In addition to our Creative Team Members and Co-founders, Paul McKibbin and David Kersnar, Shaking the Tree’s Executive Board includes professionals from diverse areas of Wealth Management and Wealth Education.

Donald Kozusko, Executive Board Member
Donald Kozusko is the Founding Partner of Kozusko Harris Vetter and Wareth LLC a law firm that provides specialized tax and legal counsel to entrepreneurs, investors, philanthropists, family offices and private businesses. Kosusko has also served as a mediator and advocate in disputes involving the control of privately owned businesses, investment ventures and family trusts. His writings/speeches have been sponsored by such groups as the ABA, U.S. Trust, Family Office Exchange and Bureau of National Affairs. Mr. Kozusko is a fellow of the American College of Trusts and Estates Counsel and was listed in Worth Magazine’s top 100 Wealth Management Attorneys in the U.S. Kosusko graduated with a BA from Villanova University and a JD from Harvard Law School.

Stephen McCarthy, Acting President
Stephen McCarthy is a Senior Vice President of KCG Capital Advisors, a family investment office he co-founded with his father John “Jack” McCarthy, a former Managing Partner and CIO of Lord Abbett. Steve has more than 35 years of diversified professional experience in the financial services industry with such firms as PaineWebber, Security Pacific, Deloitte, Citibank and Bache. Currently he represents his family group with the Institute for Private Investors, the Gotham Triangle and the Greenwich Roundtable and is a mentor/judge for NYU/Stern’s Annual Business Plan Competition. A former two term board member of Philanthropy NY and a trustee of his family’s foundation, McCarthy’s past two decades in the philanthropic arena have included significant projects with the COF, ASF, NCFP and SCNM. He received his BA from Wesleyan University and his MBA from NYU/Stern.

Elvira Orza, Executive Board Member
Elvira Orza is a Managing Director of Family Office Metrics, a firm that provides targeted business consulting on management, operations and technology applications for family offices. At Family Office Metrics she heads marketing, research and educational programs for family offices and the advisors who serve them. Prior to joining FOM, she was Executive Director of the Outstanding Directors Exchange, a division of Money-Media, a Financial Times company, specializing in educational programs in corporate governance for public company directors. Before joining Money-Media, Orza headed the Finance and Investments Division of the Institute for International Research. Orza previously lived in Paris, France where she worked with executives of leading financial institutions including Société Générale and Crédit Lyonnais. She received her MBA from Pace University with distinction.