Alan, now retired, founded The Lovins Group with Don Opatrny after more than 20 years working as a consultant to family owned businesses. He now enjoys his status as consultant emeritus and his role on the Lovins Group advisory board. Throughout his distinguished career, Alan was called upon many times to help parents and children accomplish succession, and to help siblings in business get along better so that parents were willing to transfer management and ownership. He helped cousins work together peacefully in 3rd generation businesses, and helped married couples in business together to smooth out the bumps. He also worked with medical and legal partnerships, which often face difficult succession issues similar to family businesses.

Alan’s involvement with family businesses stretches back to childhood. His father was an entrepreneur and the family table talk often centered on the ups and downs of the business. His professional work with family businesses spanned a vast career that included: succession planning, conflict resolution, communication strategies, inter-family issues, sibling dissension, gender issues, creation and facilitation of family councils, off-site retreats, strategic planning, leadership transition, extended-family dynamics and retirement planning, facilitation of groups of entrepreneurs from different families, the creation of corporate boards, and he served as a director on family boards.

“We can help families look to the future and set goals for themselves. When families become more comfortable with one another, they have hope and can achieve their goals.”

Dr. Lovins is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 35 years experience in counseling families, couples, and individuals. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Columbia University. He also earned a master’s degree in sacred theology and is an ordained rabbi. Dr. Lovins has been an associate clinical professor at Yale University. He has served on the board of directors of the UConn Family Business Program.

He is married, has 4 grown children, and seven grandchildren.


Hear from Alan and the rest of our team in our brief video segments.