BETHESDA, Maryland (November 1, 2010) – The Greater Washington DC Family Business Alliance (“The Alliance”), the go to resource for family businesses located in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Northern Virginia, announced today that Geoffrey D. Brown, CPA, a Principal with Bond Beebe, the founding company of the Alliance, has received the Family Firm Institute (“FFI”) Certificate in Family Business Advising. The FFI presented Brown with the certificate during their international conference, “Family Enterprise: New Game? New Rule?” held on October 13-16, 2010 in Chicago. The FFI is the premier international body for advising and research in the family business and family wealth fields, with the purpose of increasing public awareness and broadening understanding of trends and developments within those fields.

The Family Business Advising certificate designates the recipient as having achieved significant professional knowledge through fulfillment of all requirements, ensuring that family business owners, and/or the clients of family business and family wealth advisors, will continue to benefit from the highest standards in professional best practices. Brown, with over thirty years of public accounting and auditing experience and a B.S. in business and economics from Lehigh University, also heads Bond Beebe’s Family Business Team and acts as Bond Beebe’s Principal-in-Charge for many of their audit engagements. His experience in servicing family businesses includes tax returns, tax planning, estate planning, developing operating agreements, assistance with the sale of business, and gifting plans for wealth transference.

The Alliance was founded in 2008 by Bond Beebe, a certified public accounting firm, to help family businesses located in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia find the information and assistance they need to succeed. Its objective is to provide a structured forum for the exchange of ideas and best practices. The Alliance (www.dcfamilybusiness.com) helps area family businesses achieve their business goals while maintaining healthy and harmonious family relationships.