Meet Jean Meeks-Koch, Ph.D.

Jean Meeks-Koch, Ph.D., is the CEO/Founder of Positively People Consulting, specializing in advising family enterprises facing challenging continuity planning and transitions. She has extensive experience in change management initiatives, organizational systems, restructuring, continuity planning, conflict resolution, and mediation. 

Jean started her career as an expert in organizational change management and large-scale transformation, working with restructuring government agencies, institutions, corporations, and NGO environments. Through her former academic role at the University of Oregon and Oregon State University, Jean was drawn into the dynamic eco-system of family-owned business environments, focusing her strong organization structure and group dynamics experience on helping family business enterprises address the complexities of continuity and succession planning.

Jean is positioned to help families select strategies for their unique family dynamics and help non-family businesses create successful strategic partnerships with family-owned business enterprises. Jean uses design thinking to solve complex problems and find desirable client solutions. A design mindset is not problem-focused; it’s solution-focused and action-oriented toward creating a preferred future. 

Jean’s post-doctoral research focused on building strength-based teams. Realizing that, as humans, we strive for successful human relationships, Jean has taken this into the family enterprise through her engaging work in building cohesive teams. Cohesive teamwork helps family members navigate the complexities of trust, healthy discourse, commitment, and accountability, ultimately reaching aspirational goals and having fun doing it!

Jean holds a Ph.D. in Organization Systems and a Master of Accountancy. Jean is a long-standing member of the Family Firm Institute and received the distinction of FFI Fellow in London in 2018. 

Specialties

• Family Governance
• Organization Structure and Design
• Succession & Continuity
• Leadership & Next Generation Development
• Strategic Planning and Implementation
• Strategic Talent Management and Human Resources
• Healthy Culture and Team Engagement

Education

• Ph.D. in Organization Systems and Behaviors, Saybrook University
• Masters in Accountancy, Southern Utah University
• Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Southern Utah University

Certifications

• Society of Human Resources, SHRM-SCP
• Everything DiSC Behavioral Assessment Suite
• 5 Behaviors of Cohesive Teams Assessment
• OSI Polaris Competency Model
• Strength Finders
• Family Firm Institute – Advance Certification in Family Business Advising – ACFBA
• Certified Exit Planning Advisor – Exit Planning Institute