EXCLUSIVE: TrustedFamily Hires FOX Advisory Board Member, Family Office Veteran To Lead Growth In North America

Harriet Davies

17 July 2012

TrustedFamily has appointed Wendy Craft, who sits on Family Office Exchange’s advisory board, as head of the Americas office in New York, responsible for driving growth across North America.

TrustedFamily, a secure online communications platform provider, is currently implementing a strategy to work with the top business families in every country around the world, as discussed in a recent interview with this publication .

“Wendy will lead all business development initiatives in North America. She brings a wealth of experience to the table and in particular, her role on the advisory board of the Family Office Exchange and her association with a number of large business families is expected to boost sales and performance for the company,” said TrustedFamily.

Craft previously worked as vice president and general counsel for the Shepperd family, an international investment family based in Zurich, Switzerland. In that role she led a New York office for the family.

Before working with the Shepperd family, she was vice president and general counsel for the Schneider family, a prominent real estate family in New York. During her time there, she assisted in separating the operating company from the family office.

“Wendy's appointment coincides with a fundamental change in the wealth management and private banking sector – an acceptance of social media to improve client communication,” said Joachim Vandaele, chief executive of the firm.

“I strongly believe in the product and its capability to take traditionally run family offices and business into the new era of social media,” said Craft. “From my experience of working with prominent family offices, I have witnessed an increasing need for secure communications platforms to bring and keep families together and preserve wealth.”

TrustedFamily provides customizable social media sites to family offices and business-owning families. The product allows families to create a governance system by sharing items such as reports, meeting minutes and shareholder communications, as well as more personal items such as a family tree, photo albums and legacy planning documents.