Sally Derstine has a passionate calling to help business-owning families flourish across generations. As Managing Partner of Delaware Valley Family Business Center, she leads her team; guides enterprising families through the complexities of leadership, ownership, governance, and relationships; and leads their Forum for Enterprising Families—an educational learning community of 60+ business families.For 34 years Sally has been creating brave spaces to guide enterprising families through delicate, awkward and necessary conversations. She has helped hundreds of families navigate succession, strengthen relationships, develop effective governance, and preserve both healthy families and thriving businesses for future generations.Having grown up as a third-generation member of her own family business, Sally understands firsthand both the blessings and the burdens of family enterprise. That experience has shaped her compassionate approach and engaging spirit to guide families through conversations that are messy, high stakes, and often deeply transformational.
Sally created the 5 MOUNTAIN® Model, an integrated framework that has helped countless families develop a shared language for navigating the overlapping roles of family, management, ownership, governance, and advisors.Sally is a trusted guide to generations of business-owning families, helping them discover that lasting success is measured not only by the businesses they build, but by the relationships and values they pass on.Her academic preparation in organizational management, psychology, and Bowen Family Systems Theory reflects her lifelong commitment to understanding herself, organizations, and the relationships that sustain them. She is a fellow of Family Firm Institute, an international organization dedicated to providing interdisciplinary education for family business advisors, where she holds certifications in Family Business Advising.
Sally and her husband, Doug have found their greatest joy in investing in their extended and nuclear family—including three precious grandchildren—whose lives continually remind them that legacy is ultimately about faithful stewardship and “doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.”