Keynote Speakers at SEFOF

David Brooks has a gift for bringing audiences face to face with the spirit of our times with humor, insight and quiet passion. He is a keen observer of the American way of life and a savvy analyst of present-day politics and foreign affairs.

He holds several prestigious positions as a commentator:

• Bi-weekly Op-Ed columnist for the New York Times

• Regular analyst on PBS NewsHour and NPR’s All Things Considered

David’s New York Times bestseller, The Road to Character, “explains why selflessness leads to greater success. He tells the story of ten great lives that illustrate how character is developed, and how we can all strive to build rich inner lives, marked by humility and moral depth. In a society that emphasizes success and external achievement, The Road to Character is a book about inner worth.”

Matt Paxton is one of the top downsizing and decluttering experts in the country. He is the host of the 2-time Emmy nominated series Legacy List with Matt Paxton on PBS and was a featured cleaner on the hit television show HOARDERS for 15 seasons. Matt is also the author of the best-selling book, Keep the Memories, Lose the Stuff.

Paxton started cleaning out houses after his father, step-father and both grandfathers died in the same year and is the reason Matt has been working with families struggling with hoarding and downsizing for 20 years. Matt appears regularly on television and radio, as a public speaker, and running his private company helping families downsize and cleaning out estates. He lives in Atlanta, GA with his wife and 7 kids. Yes, 7 children.

Thomasina Williams provides leadership development for enterprising families seeking to build transgenerational legacies of success. Her personal passion and professional quest to be a resource for enterprising families is fueled by her own family history of loss of wealth and fracturing of relationships during the transition from her grandparents to her mother’s generation.

Thomasina is a member of Forte, a cadre of vetted family advisors within the Family Wealth Alliance, a family office network that is part of financial giant Charles Schwab.

She was the first Family Dynamics Consultant Wells Fargo Private Bank hired to come in-house and play a leadership role in developing a new service offering to help its ultra-high net worth clients manage generational wealth transitions. Her work at the bank also included training wealth advisors to better understand and navigate “the family side” of family wealth.

Coventry Edwards-Pitt, CFA, CFP®, is the Chief Creative Officer at Ballentine Partners, a firm that specializes in providing investment and wealth management advice to wealthy families and entrepreneurs. She is responsible for thought leadership for the firm. She began her career at Goldman Sachs after graduating from Harvard University.

Covie is the author of the Healthy, Wealthy & Wise Collection, a three-book series that highlights success stories of how individuals have reconciled their financial abundance with the values and relationships that matter most in their lives. The first, Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (2014), focuses on helping parents to raise grounded children amid wealth, the second, Aged Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (2017), centers on how to design a vibrant later life and legacy, and the third, Engaged Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (2023), offers a roadmap for inheritors and their significant others on how to navigate love and family wealth and forge their own joint path.

Covie’s books live at the intersection of heart and wealth. She has spoken at over 150 events for wealth-owning families and their advisors and consults to individuals and families about how to implement the books’ strategies in their own families. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and daughter.