Ed Hart

Ed Hart is Senior Vice President and Director of the Center for Family-Owned Businesses for First Bank of St Louis, a 4th generation privately held, family-owned bank. He resides in Southern California with his wife Laurieann, and together they have eight grandsons!

Possessing an extensive background in leading family-owned businesses, Ed has helped hundreds of family businesses with his expertise and sound leadership. Most recently, Ed assisted a start-up financial services provider in their launch of an Institute for Entrepreneurship, focused on working with small-to-medium sized, minority-owned businesses around Southern California. Prior to that, Ed led the Cal State Fullerton Center for Family Business for 11 years, where he created educational programs for hundreds of family businesses, raised millions of dollars for the Center and the university, and in 2019, took a group of CSUF students to Vietnam on a study abroad program to visit several family businesses.

Ed has developed a reputation as an ambassador for the success, legacy, and leadership development of family businesses, and the underserved populations around the country.

Throughout his career Ed has developed Executive Education programs for the USC Marshall School of Business, taught Sports Leadership and Sports Finance at UC Riverside for 8 years, served as the General Manager of a professional minor league baseball team, and was the North American Business Development Manager for an Australian technology company that serviced the sports and hospitality industries.

He is a published author, sought after public speaker, and hosts the From The Hart Podcast, which is heard in 101 countries, and has hundreds of thousands of listeners annually.

“The most rewarding investment of all is a relationship.”