koffler group

Travel Money

September 26, 2013

The Koffler Group, a US-based family office, has traditionally travelled light when it comes to debt, but Campden talks to the third-gen who has been fearless in making sure it now has a mixed bag of investments.

The family fortune may have been made by an inherently conservative investor with a flair for designing suitcases, but when it comes to investment strategy subsequent generations of the Koffler family have been determined not to carry any baggage.

Sol Koffler is a poster child for the American dream. Arriving in the US from eastern Europe in 1920 at the age of 13, he started selling $1 suitcases as the Great Depression reached its peak. Over the next 46 years he built American Tourister into the second largest luggage company in the country.

Forging a feminine role in the family office

October 26, 2009

For high-flying multi-skilled women, working in a family office can offer an exciting challenge. Jane Simms interviews two women who have made the family office environment their home, with differing experiences

Terri Chernick never intended to join the family business. She wanted to be a doctor. "I was the black sheep of the family. I wanted to go off and do my own thing," she recalls. "In the idealistic way that young people have, I wanted to 'make a contribution to society', and because I loved the sciences I entered Brown University as a premed."