The next big career track at business schools: Family offices

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Top universities are tapping into the family office boom, with a growing number of programs and courses aimed at training the next generation of family office leaders.

Last week, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business launched the Booth Family Office Initiative, a combination of research programs, courses and summits aimed at current and future family office executives. The initiative includes a council of 50 family office leaders and Booth alumni who will help steer the program.

"If you think of the family office market, the amount of capital overseen, and the importance of family offices commercially, in investing and philanthropy, the growth has been significant," said Paul Carbone, co-founder and vice chairman of Pritzker Private Capital and a member of the Family Office Initiative Steering Committee. "The challenges they face have only grown. Here at Booth we have a deep intellectual capital base that can be applied to these questions."

The Booth Initiative is part of a surge in family office programs at top universities. Business schools at Harvard, Columbia, Northwestern, Pepperdine and other universities have started offering courses aimed at family offices or family-owned companies.

Yet the Booth program marks the biggest university bet on family offices in 20 years. In 2004, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and the CCC Alliance, the family office peer group, teamed up to form the Wharton Global Family Alliance. With research, roundtables, courses, special presentations