Being a successful family business CEO requires a combination of business acumen, leadership skills and an understanding of the unique dynamics that come with running a family-owned enterprise. Each year, Family Business Magazine recognizes business CEOs for their exceptional leadership skills, and we feature them in our November/December issue.
To complement this special feature, three of the CEOs will join us for a webinar discussion on the unique challenges and opportunities of leading a family-owned business.
In a session moderated by BDO’s Brooke Anderson, Callie Zamzow, Co-CEO, Zamzows, and CEO, Dynamite Specialty Products; Steve Henn, CEO, IDEAL Industries; and Mary Lisle Landhuis, President, Lisle Corporation, along with David Shaw, Publishing Director of Family Business Magazine, will address the following topics and respond to audience questions and comments:
- Business issues — economic uncertainty, risk, talent, changing customer expectations
- Leadership challenges in a family business — from the family and non-family perspective
- Planning for your own succession
- Lessons learned and what you wish you had known
If you are the CEO of a family-owned business or aspire to lead your family company, this webinar will offer insights into what it takes to achieve true leadership success.
Family Business Magazine’s “Family Business CEOs to Watch” section was made possible through our sponsorship partner, BDO.
Date and Time
Thursday, December 14, 2023
2 PM ET | 11 AM PT
60 minutes
Speakers

Callie Zamzow
CEO, Dynamic Specialty Products
Callie Zamzow holds the title of CEO for two family businesses — Zamzows, a fourth-generation lawn, garden and pet supplies retail chain, and Dynamite Specialty Products, a second-generation business that manufactures and distributes nutritional supplements. She graduated from Boise State University with a biology degree, then worked outside the family businesses for several years before becoming the marketing director for Dynamite. She dove in to learn the rest of the business, eventually taking the reins as CEO in 2005. In that role, she steadily grew sales and increased the number of independent distributors throughout the United States and Canada. In 2018, she and her brother, Jos Zamzow, were asked to take over as co-CEOs of Zamzows Inc., a lawn, garden and pet supply business.
Zamzow recognized early on that she would need to be a continuous learner to lead her family’s businesses. She has obtained several continuing education certificates, including Mindful Leadership Inner MBA (New York University), Advanced Master Gardener (University of Idaho) and certification to teach behavioral insights. She has also been a member of various boards in her community.

Steve Henn
CEO, IDEAL Industries
Steve Henn spent 29 years with Illinois Tool Works before joining IDEAL Industries in 2019. IDEAL is a global enterprise with companies serving technicians and workers across a wide range of industries, including electrical, construction, aerospace and automotive.
Henn is a board member of Construction Specialties. He holds a B.A. in accounting and finance from Seattle Pacific University and an MBA from Georgia State University.
“Not only did Steve manage the COVID crisis exceptionally well, keeping our family values firmly in place and using them as decision-making guardrails, but he also implemented a new strategy of focusing on the core businesses and our core strengths,” says Meghan Juday. chairman of the board at IDEAL. “This focus has resulted in record-breaking operating income and EBITDA and poised the company for further growth.

Mary Lisle Landhuis
President, Lisle Corporation
Mary Lisle Landhuis is the president of Lisle Corporation, manufacturer of a line of over 800 automotive specialty tools with a magnetic plug division and a full line of machining tools made by its Dunham Tool division. She also oversees Lisle’s sister company, EZ Way Inc., a medical device manufacturing company.
Landhuis was born and raised in Clarinda, Iowa. She received a B.S. degree from Northwestern University in 1995 and began her career in corporate communications with Chicago Title Insurance Company. She then moved on to be an account executive with Business Wire Chicago. In 1999, she and her husband, Brad Landhuis, moved back to Clarinda and her work at Lisle began as a programmer in the IT department.
With the company’s acquisition of EZ Way in 2003, Landhuis became EZ Way’s national sales manager and was tasked with expanding the company from a regional to a national level and growing the product line. Landhuis became EZ Way’s vice president in 2005 and president in 2009. In 2018, she became the president of Lisle Corporation.

Brooke Anderson
Managing Principal; Private Client Services National Practice Leader, BDO
Brooke has more than 15 years of experience serving high net worth individuals, their families, family offices, C-suite executives and others with complex tax and financial structures. Her expertise centers on trust administration, fiduciary responsibility, gift taxation, generation skipping transfer taxation and estate taxation and planning. Brooke is skilled in working alongside the clients’ trusted advisors and focusing on assessing current situations, identifying risks and proposing solutions to achieve the most optimal results.
Currently, Brooke leads the firm’s Private Client Services national practice where she is responsible for the strategic growth and operations of the practice. During her career at BDO, she also led the Pittsburgh market as Office Managing Principal of the Tax Practice for several years. Concurrently, she served as the Central Region Private Client Service Leader where she assisted the national leadership team over the last five years in the development of the practice.
Brooke is a current member and Pittsburgh Board Member of YPO (Young Presidents’ Organization) which is a global leadership community of chief executives.

David Shaw
Publishing Director, Family Business Magazine
David Shaw is the publishing director of Family Business Magazine and its sister publication, Directors & Boards. With more than 30 years of experience in business-to-business and consumer media markets, he has served as an editor, publisher, publishing director, group publisher and group vice president of a variety of publications, trade shows, conferences and websites.
Prior to founding GRID Media, David served as senior vice president for Phillips Business Information Inc., where he oversaw nearly 100 discrete media properties, and helped build the business from $35 million to more than $100 million in annual revenues. He is a frequent author and speaker on issues related to business-to-business media, multi-generational family businesses and private and public company governance. He is married, with two grown children, one serving in the Navy and the other in law school.
Benefits
- No cost to attend
- Opportunity for questions and feedback
- Unbiased third-party family business education
- All participants can receive a copy of the webinar materials after the event, upon request
- All participants receive Family Business Magazine weekly newsletter, with news, tips and trends that impact your family business. You may, of course, opt out at any time.
- 60 minutes — maximum value for time
Sponsored by
