At Vistage, there is no shortage of stories about extraordinary leaders and their journeys. Chairs helping members overcome crippling crises. Mentors creating a community out of a group of strangers. Coaches who spent a lifetime making a difference in the lives of others.
In this regard, the Quinns are pitch-perfect subjects. Vistage Master Chair Chris Quinn won the 2022 Pat Hyndman Award for his selflessness and meteoric rise as a Chair. Meanwhile, Ana Quinn — a 2023 Vistage Chair Excellence Award recipient herself — began coaching almost accidentally. She started helping people pro bono who faced post-9/11 job losses and found a career calling. After going through Vistage Chair Academy, she now coaches multiple groups and participates as a Trusted Advisor group member Chaired by her husband.
Together, they have created a unique and vibrant ecosystem in their hometown in North Carolina as the duo coaches a staggering 199 members across 13 groups.
And yet, after partnering with one another in various business endeavors over the past three decades, it’s clear the Quinns’ best work is still in progress.
In 2023, the Quinns brought their sons, Kevin, 27, and Liam, 26, into the family business at Imprint Talent Readiness, a firm that helps organizations align their business strategy with their people strategy, and immediately sponsored their membership in an Emerging Leader group. (Mom coaches that one, too.)
The elder Quinns know full well that their progeny may or may not choose to lead the family business in the future. But what the couple provides will no doubt resonate in their children’s business endeavors for years to come.
Photos by RTP.Studio
“We mentor other people’s kids through Vistage. We thought, ‘Why not pour that into our kids and grow them into the kind of effective leaders that we help other people’s kids become?’” Chris says.
Both sons struck out on their own after college — Kevin at a cybersecurity firm, Liam working for a software company. Both found some success, but not a lot of fulfillment.
“Whenever I got feedback at work it was always, ‘You always work hard. You do your best,’” Kevin says. “That’s great feedback, but if I’m going to give it my all, I want to have a stake in it. I wanted to maximize my drive and hunger for success and use it for the family business.”
This was music to Chris and Ana’s ears. It was also, quite possibly, an inevitable outcome of a parenting style that had so thoroughly been informed by mentorship and coaching principles.
“They’ve created an environment of providing guidance and coaching for Liam and me, both personally and professionally,” Kevin says. “The way they conduct themselves, we look up to it.”
The brothers had heard about Vistage since Chris became a coach in 2018, but getting the full immersion as an Emerging Leader member has been illuminating. The brothers discovered the competitive advantage that comes with running a family-owned business.
“In our group, we don’t find many family-run businesses. It’s been interesting to me to hear people’s reactions like, ‘How do you do that?’” Kevin says. “I don’t know. It’s innate. A lot of other people struggle with communication and openness. We lean into our trust to help build a business.”
Chris and Ana found that same connection the first time they worked together 32 years ago. They were single and employed at a major health care company in Florida. Ana had a strict no-fishing-from-the-office-pool approach to dating, but love reeled her in. Today, the Quinns are the quintessential partners.
“We leverage our differences and stay in our color-coded swim lanes,” says Ana, the steady operations hand to Chris’s big-picture visionary. “Over the years, I’ve learned to put on my oxygen mask and say, ‘Oh my God. Chris has an idea.’ We wouldn’t be where we are today if he didn’t push.”
That push helped launch Imprint’s two decades of growth, including a 24% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the last five years. But the Quinns aren’t pushing their kids to take over the business. They say it’s for the brothers to decide when the time is right.
“I don’t see my parents ever not working,” Liam says, though both brothers hinted at an interest in building upon their parents’ foundation at Imprint.
“They’re letting us figure out our approach to work,” Liam says. “I have so much gratitude to them for that. They’re giving us the steps to succeed in the future.”
