4th generation owner, Babcock Lumber Company, co-trustee, Harbeck Family Foundation, and director of research & development, GenSpring
Kirby Rosplock, PhD, is a 4th generation owner of Babcock Lumber Company started by her great grandfather in 1889. The family amassed a series of businesses that included hardwood lumber mills from PA down the Eastern seaboard into GA, AL and FL. Throughout the family business history, the family owned and operated a number of different businesses including a hotel, peanut plantation, Chevrolet dealership and one of the largest cattle ranching operation in FL. Over the last few decades the family has divested many of these operations; however the core and founding business, Babcock Lumber Co. is still in operation and celebrated its 130th birthday in 2009.
In 2007, the family completed a watershed sale of Babcock Ranch to the state of FL, purchased with funds from the Florida Forever Program and a green developer, Kitson and Partners’ (
www.babcockranchflorida.com
). In fact, over 80% of original Babcock Ranch purchase, fully 73,000 acres within Charlotte and Lee counties in southwest Florida, has been preserved by the State of Florida and Lee County in the largest single land preservation agreement in the State’s history. In addition to being a part-owner of the family business, Kirby also serves as trustee of her family’s foundation, is a co-preneur with her husband of White Lotus Collection (
www.WhiteLotusCollection.net
). She also is the Director, of Research & Development at GenSpring Family Offices, a multi-family office that works with over 700 of the world’s wealthiest families to oversee or manage important aspects of their financial lives.
Kirby earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Middlebury College, and an MBA from Marquette University, with an emphasis in private equity finance and entrepreneurship. Kirby has her PhD in Organizational Systems from Saybrook University, where she focused on change management as it applies to affluent families. The Women & Wealth study conducted in 2006 was part of her dissertation entitled, “Women’s Interest, Attitudes and Involvement with their Wealth.” Her advising and research focuses on women, wealth, next generation owners, governance and the family enterprise.