Matt Hively
Senior Advisor and Associate Partner
Cambridge Family Enterprise Group
Matt Hively is a senior advisor and associate partner at Cambridge Advisors to Family Enterprise, a highly specialized, international advisory firm serving family enterprises. Cambridge Advisors and Cambridge Institute for Family Enterprise, an education and research institute, are divisions of Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, a global organization founded in 1989. It is devoted to helping families and ownership groups navigate the new economy and achieve multigenerational success for their families, enterprises, and financial wealth.
Mr. Hively is an advisor to family enterprises on the strategies, portfolio models, governance models, and business models required for their successful, long-term continuity. He advises the ownership groups of family-owned enterprises around the world on issues of portfolio and investment strategy, corporate growth, corporate governance and the alignment of the owners around a shared vision, mission, values, and strategy. His primary focus is advising on portfolio strategy and transformation, including portfolio design, asset allocation, diversification, divestiture, international expansion, risk management, governance, and owners’ alignment around their future direction.
Mr. Hively is an experienced professional in both executive leadership roles and strategic advising, having worked with family enterprises across geographies and in different capacities since the beginning of his career. He has held multiple CEO and other executive leadership roles within family businesses, as well as led multi-national strategy consulting projects for family-owned conglomerates. He has worked with family enterprises of different sizes and generations, from founder-led, focused businesses to late-generation, cousin-owned, multi-nationals.
For much of the last decade Mr. Hively played a pivotal role in the transformation of a family-owned conglomerate. He worked closely with the sibling and cousin owners to define their long-term ownership objectives, and designed and implemented an overhaul of their portfolio of business and financial holdings. Initially he served as Chief of Strategy, he helped redesign and implement the family’s long-term target portfolio. He served as a voting board member and recurring board participant within the portfolio. Mr. Hively also led individual organizations within the portfolio, serving as CEO of several of the families’ significant businesses, with thousands of employees, in industries ranging from industrials to real estate.
Earlier in his career Mr. Hively spent nearly 10 years with Bain & Company, a global strategy consulting firm. He led corporate strategy, wealth & portfolio strategy and performance improvement projects for large businesses, both family and non-family owned. He was a leader in the Family Business and Private Equity practices, working with clients across the United States, Latin America, and Europe on portfolio design and strategy, business transformation, M&A and operating company optimization.
Mr. Hively has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from the Wharton Business School. He has been a delegate to the World Economic Forum, board member for Ronald McDonald House Foundation, and board member for leading trade associations in Latin America. He is fluent in English and Spanish.
