In the early days of the pandemic in 2020, Samira Salman hosted a Zoom meeting to bring together some of the wealthiest families on the planet. The meeting proved a hit, leading Salman to recreate it as a series of weekly learning opportunities that featured professors from various disciplines, a former Federal Reserve Chair, and the one-time U.S. Inspector General, among others. The Zoom get-togethers, originally conceived as a forum for connection during a dark time, have since evolved into a series of real world events—and underscored Salman’s role as a power connector.
Salman is an advisor to family offices, or the firms that manage the wealth of the world’s richest households. A one-time corporate mergers and acquisitions lawyer, she eventually transitioned to the family office space, where she helps billionaires with a variety of tasks, including the placement of direct investments.
But she is also a networker, a natural community builder with an infectious energy. Not content with a weekly Zoom meeting, Salman transformed those early-pandemic sessions into IRL events and retreats, where members and representatives of ultra wealthy families discuss what she describes as “the most pressing problems” of our time.
Earlier this month, 65 invitees from the global family office and private investment community, each overseeing assets ranging from $30 million to $50 billion—including a Cartier, a Rockefeller, and other high-profile guests who wish to remain anonymous—headed to upstate New York for what Salman and co-host Ben Slome from investment firm New Vintage Partners dubbed Collaboration Circle Live! Hudson Valley.
When Salman first started attending family office conferences on behalf of the billionaires she represents over a decade ago, she found the events left much to be desired. Too stuffy, too corporate, too dull—Salman was itching to put together a more comfortable, more upscale conference for some time, which was the genesis of Collaboration Circle. It’s finance conference meets yoga retreat meets luxury vacation, she says, with really good food.
“I always had this vision that if we could put people together in a way that doesn’t feel so transactional and business-y, I bet we would get more done,” Salman says.
The benefit of the in-person gatherings, Salman says, is that members of these global dynasties—attendees hail from the U.S., Latin America, MENA,…
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