ABOUT IFERA

The Netherlands

Albert Jan Thomassen is an associate of The Family Business Consulting Group and teaches family business governance at TiasNimbas Business School. Next to that he is a consultant, speaker and moderator with a focus on ownership, governance and succession issues of business owning families.

Uruguay

France

Christine Blondel is Adjunct Professor of Family Business at INSEAD. She co-directs the Family Enterprise Challenge, INSEAD four-day educational programme for family businesses. She advises several business families, serves on boards of traded family-influenced companies and regularly speaks in conferences.

She coordinated INSEAD activities in the field of family firms from their creation in January 1997 to December 2007 and was the first Executive Director of the Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise at INSEAD. INSEAD’s activities in the field of family firms were initiated thanks to the Wendel family – active in business since 1704 – and reinforced by the Tetra Laval Research Fund for the Large Family Firm, the Berghmans/Lhoist Chair in entrepreneurial leadership, gifts from INSEAD alumni, and the André and Rosalie Hoffmann Chair and Research Fund in Family Enterprise. The activities include optional courses on family firms for MBA and executive education participants; research and development of pedagogical cases; roundtables for representatives of large family firms; a four-day programme for business families: The Family Business Enterprise Challenge, and tailor-made programmes for family businesses.

Christine Blondel is the lead author of the book” L’entreprise familiale sauvera-t-elle le capitalisme? Portraits” (Editions Autrement, janvier 2008), written with Anne Dumas. She contributed to several articles, cases and books on topics including large, multi-generational family firms, successors’ dilemma, Fair Process, governance, women in the family business, and the sale of the family business. Her case “the Resort in Pueblo Valley” received the 2008 award from the European Case Clearing House in the Entrepreneurship category. The research article “Fair Process; Striving for Justice in Family Business” (authored by Ludo Van der Heyden, Christine Blondel and Randel Carlock) received the 2006 FBN Research Honours for the best published article on family business practices.

Christine Blondel was a board member of the Family Business Network (FBN) from 2001 to 2004, and a founding board member of the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA). She is a member of the Family Firm Institute, a network of academics and advisors. She was trained to facilitate the « Road Map for Business Families » by the Institute for Business Families in Montreal, Canada.

USA

Co-founder and principal of The Family Business Consulting Group, Inc., Craig Aronoff is a leading consultant, speaker, writer and educator in the family business field.

As the founder of the Cox Family Enterprise Center and current professor emeritus at Kennesaw State University in Marietta, GA, Craig invented and implemented the membership-based, professional-service-provider sponsored Family Business Forum, which has served as a model of family business education for some 150 universities worldwide. Until his retirement in January 2005, he held the Dinos Eminent Scholar Distinguished Chair of Private Enterprise and was a professor of management in Kennesaw State’s Coles College of Business.

As a consultant, Craig has worked with hundreds of family companies in the U.S. and abroad on issues including generational transitions, developing business and family governance processes and structures, finding and articulating family missions and value, facilitating decision making and conflict resolution, managerial development, family compensation and dividend policies, family meetings, and more. As an inspiring, informative and entertaining speaker on a variety of family business topics, he speaks regularly to trade and professional groups and has lectured at over 100 universities.

Italy

Daniela Montemerlo is SDA Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Family Business and Corporate Governance at SDA Bocconi School of Management. She is Full Professor of Management and Family Business at Insubria University, Professor of Strategic Management in Family Businesses and Research Associate of AIdAF-EY chair at Bocconi University.

At SDA Bocconi, she teaches Corporate Governance in Executive MBA programs as well as in executive  education programs; she also teaches family business in executive programs for owning families and boards of directors of medium and large companies as well as for financial institutions. She is Director of the open market course “Governance for success of closely-held companies” (in Italian) as well as of custom family business courses.

Her research activities, both national and international, focus on family business, corporate governance and female leadership. In the family business area, her main interest topics concern family and corporate governance, family and ownership agreements, next gen’s development, intra and inter-generational dynamics, co-leadership models, strategic management, organizational change, managerial processes, women’s leadership. In the corporate governance area her topics are: governance design (ownership agreements, structures, functioning rules); selection, role and special challenges of various types of board members and top managers; special challenges of diversity.

United States

Dianne H.B. Welsh is the Hayes Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She is known for her work in establishing new programs in training entrepreneurs and developing university curricula on entrepreneurship.

Welsh has a B.A. from the University of Iowa (1978), an M.S. Emporia State University (1984), and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (1988). She has worked at multiple universities including Eastern Washington University, where she was promoted to professor in 1997. From 2005 until 2008 she was the Walter Chair in Entrepreneurship at the University of Tampa, and in 2008 she was named the Hayes Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Welsh is known for her work in developing university programs on entrepreneurship. To meet this objective she co-authored the fourth edition of Global Entrepreneurship and the accompanying Global Entrepreneurship Case Studies. Welsh has launched three entrepreneurship centers/programs, at John Carroll University, the University of Tampa, and the University of North Carolina Greensboro. From 2013 until 2014 she was the president of the Small Business Institute.

USA

Italy

Guido Corbetta is Full Professor of Strategic Management and AIdAF – EY Professor of Strategic Management  in Family Business. Senior faculty member of the SDA Bocconi Strategic and Entrepreneurial Management Department. Member of the editorial committee of Journal of Management Studies and the research applied board of Family Business Review. Fellow of IFERA (International Family Enterprise Research Academy) and CRIOS (Center of Research on Innovation, Organization and Strategy)

Argentina

IAE Business School

Canada

Dr. Jess Chua has been a faculty member of the Haskayne School of Business since 1979 and is a Professor of Finance and Family Business Governance. Jess received his PhD in Finance from the University of Michigan, his MS in chemical engineering from Syracuse University, and his BS in chemical engineering from the University of San Carlos.

His two fields of research, reflecting his appointments, are family business governance and new venture financing. Within these two fields, he has published four books, two monographs, and over ninety papers in academic and professional journals. The research is well-cited and has received awards from numerous academic associations.

In addition to teaching and research, he has served the Haskayne School in various administrative roles and on the boards of public and private companies plus several professional organizations.  For his contribution to management practice through his teaching, research, and consulting, he received the 1999 National Post Leaders in Management Education Award. In 2002, he received the MBA Society Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

USA

James J. Chrisman (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is a Professor of Management and Director of the Center of Family Enterprise Research at Mississippi State University. He holds a joint appointment as a Research Fellow at the University of Alberta and is also a Fellow of the U.S. Association of Small Business and Entrepreneurship and the International Family Enterprise Research Academy. His research interests include family business, entrepreneurship, and strategic management. Jim has published approximately 130 articles in refereed journals on those subjects. In addition, he has conducted approximately 500 studies of the Small Business Development Center program and has presented that work at U.S. Congressional Hearings.

USA

Dr. Davis is a globally recognized pioneer and foremost authority on family enterprise, family wealth, leadership, and succession. Since the 1970s, he has served as an academic, advisor, author and speaker in the family enterprise field. For decades, his insights, advice, lectures and writing have helped to develop leaders, professionalize businesses, strengthen families, and pass sustainable enterprises from one generation to the next.

Trained in management, psychology, and economics, Dr. Davis works globally with multigenerational families, ownership groups, and business leaders on issues related to the success and continuity of their family enterprise. He advises leading families from over 70 countries on topics such as long-term sustainability; corporate and family governance; family wealth; developing the next generation; succession transitions; conflict resolution and family unity; family, ownership and business strategy; professionalizing the family business and family office; life planning; and many others. He is recognized as one of America’s leading wealth advisors. He is Founder and Chairman of the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group, a global organization he created in 1989 to support family-owned enterprises. It is comprised of two divisions: Cambridge Advisors to Family Enterprise, a highly specialized advisory firm, and Cambridge Institute for Family Enterprise, a think-tank and education and research institute for enterprising families.

A renowned academic and shaper of the family business field, Dr. Davis joined the Harvard Business School (HBS) faculty in 1996, where he founded the family business management area at the School. As a faculty member at HBS for more than 20 years, he taught and chaired executive programs, custom management programs, and MBA courses. He is the Founding Chair of the Families in Business program, a six-day, flagship executive program that he created in 1997, which examines pivotal issues facing family-owned companies. As a faculty member in the MBA program and in Executive Education for more than 20 years, he taught family business management, leadership, ownership, governance, change management, and life planning in several programs, including the Owner/President Management program, Boards for Private Companies, Key Executives, Launching New Ventures, Real Estate Management, Leading and Transforming Family Businesses—China, and in custom programs for executive teams and business owners.

USA

John Ward teaches and studies strategic management, business leadership, and family enterprise continuity. He is an active researcher, speaker and consultant on continuity, ownership, governance, and philanthropy. Ward is Clinical Professor of Family Enterprises at Kellogg School of Management (USA), and has taught at IMD (Switzerland), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Indian School of Business, and IESE (Barcelona).  His is also a Co-Founder and Senior Advisor of The Family Business Consulting Group.

Spain

Professor Josep Tàpies has held the Family-Owned Business Chair since October 1, 2003. Since gaining a doctorate in Industrial Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia and an MBA at ESADE, Professor Tàpies has taught General Management in a number of different business schools in both Europe and Latin America, including AESE in Portugal, IDE in Ecuador, PAD-University of Piura in Peru, ISE in Brazil, IAE in Argentina, ESE in Chile, and INALDE in Colombia.

Australia

Ken Moores is currently a Professor of Management (Family Business) and Director of the Australian Centre for Family Business that he founded in 1994. He currently serves as an External Member of the Audit and Risk Management Committee, Queensland Audit Office. He is also a recognized ‘Fellow’ of International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA). He has pioneered research and recognition of family business in Australia and has achieved international recognition for his work. His research interests have included management accounting, finance, strategic planning, corporate governance, and leadership development in family businesses.

Australia

Kosmas is Professor of Family Business Entrepreneurship, School of Management RMIT University. In relation to his honorary editorial and research activities, Kosmas is Foundation Associate Editor of theJournal ofFamily Business Strategy and formerAssociate Editor of theFamily Business Review journal, and a former Foundation Board Member of the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA).

Spain

Sweden

Canada

Lloyd Steier is a Professor in the Department of Strategic Management and Organization at the University of Alberta School of Business. He holds a Distinguished Chair in Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise and is the Academic Director of both the Centre for Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise and the Alberta Business Family Institute.

France

Manfred Kets de Vries brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Bringing to bear his knowledge and experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, MBA, and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association), Kets de Vries scrutinizes the interface between international management, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and dynamic psychiatry. His specific areas of interest are leadership, career dynamics, executive stress, entrepreneurship, family business, succession planning, cross-cultural management, team building, coaching, and the dynamics of corporate transformation and change. The Distinguished Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, Kets de Vries has been the Founding-Director of INSEAD’s Global Leadership Center, one of the largest leadership development centers in the world. In addition, he is Program Director of INSEAD’s top management program, “The Challenge of Leadership: Creating Reflective Leaders,” and Scientific Director of the Executive Master’s Program “Consulting and Coaching for Change (and has received INSEAD’s distinguished teacher award five times). He has also held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal, the European School for Management and Technology, Berlin, and the Harvard Business School, and he has lectured at management institutions around the world.

Finland

Matti Koiranen currently works at the Entrepreneurship Department, University of Jyväskylä. Matti does research in Higher Education, Adult Education and Educational Leadership. Their most recent publication is ‘Enhancing Primary School Student Teachers’ Psychological Ownership in Teaching Music.’

Spain

Miguel Angel Gallo is professor emeritus in the Department of Strategic Management at IESE Business School

He earned his doctorate in engineering from the E.T.S.I.I. Barcelona. He has widespread professional experience, having served on the boards of management of prominent firms such as AVANCO, ANESIN, Widewall Investments and Grupo Senda (Mexico). He is president of the Family Business Consulting Group (Spain) and fellow of the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA).

UK

Professor Nigel Nicholson has been a Professor at London Business School since 1990. Before becoming a business psychologist he was a journalist, and he is a frequent commentator in the media on current business issues. He is widely known for pioneering the introduction of the new science of evolutionary psychology to business through a stream of writing, including an article in Harvard Business Review in 1998 and his book Managing the Human Animal. His current major research interests include the psychology of family business, personality and leadership, gender issues and people skills in management. He has published over 20 books and 200 articles in these fields, as well as on topics such as innovation, organisational change and executive career development.

Cyprus

Dr Panikkos Poutziouris is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at UCLAN Cyprus –The Enterprising British University in Cyprus, heading the School of Business and Management. He has served for almost two decades on the Faculty of Manchester Business School – University of Manchester (UK) as Fellow in SME Management, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Visiting  Associate Professor for Family Business Initiatives . Professor Poutziouris lectures, researches, publishes and advises internationally on Entrepreneurship and Strategic Development of Family Businesses and Business Families. He has offered his advice and support  to a number of small-medium-large sized family enterprises; finance houses/banks, governments, and other enterprise support agencies  including the Directorate of Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission and OECD.  He has led a number of initiatives which have been supported by UBS Wealth Management,Tilney Fund Management, Saggita Fund Management, BDO Stoy Hayward, KPMG, National Westminster Bank , Grant Thornton, PWC etc.  His research and commentaries have been featured by leading business press such as Financial Times , Sunday Times , Kathimerini, International HeraldTribune, etc. He is the Past President of IFERA (International Family Enterprise Research Academy) and previously served on the advisory board of IFB (UK). In 2011, Family Firm Institute has honored Dr Poutziouris with the FFI International Award.

Belgium

Rik Donckels is professor emeritus at the KU Brussels. He was also managing director of Cera and is co-founder of the Institute for Family Business.

Germany

Sabine Rau is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Business at King’s College London. Before going back to academia again, Dr. Rau founded her own business before joining her family’s business. She re-started her academic career as a Research Fellow at INSEAD in 2001. In 2003 Professor Rau took over the presidency of the international family business researchers, ifera (www.ifera.org) which she led until 2007. She serves on several boards as independent director such as the Aufsichtsrat of Steuler (www.steuler.de), a hidden champion from Germany.

Italy

USA

Shaker A. Zahra is the Department Chair, Robert E. Buuck Chair of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Strategy in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He is also the Academic Director of the Gary S. Holmes Entrepreneurship Center. He has served also as the Academic Co-Director of Carlson Ventures Enterprises as well as the Founding Co-Director of the Center for Integrative Leadership at University of Minnesota. Previously, Shaker was Paul T. Babson Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship at Babson College and Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship at Georgia State University. He has been a visiting or guest professor at several universities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Shaker has also held the 3TU Chair in International Entrepreneurship at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

USA

Sharon M. Danes currently works at the Department of Family Social Science, University of Minnesota Twin Cities. Sharon does research in Sociological Theory. Their most recent publication is ‘Business-Owning Families: Challenges at the Intersection of Business and Family.’

Yong Wang is a Professor in Family Business & Entrepreneurship at Wolverhampton Business School. He served the International Family Enterprise Research Academy (IFERA), the world-leading family business research association as a Board Director during 2010-2017. In 2018, he was awarded Fellow of IFERA.

Prof. Wang acts as the Head of the Doctoral Programme and leads the Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (ESBM) cluster at Wolverhampton. He is the founding director of the Sino-Foreign Family Business Research Centre at Beijing Institute of Technology, China and holds visiting professorships at both Beijing Institute of Technology and Hebei University of Technology, China. He is a member of British Academy of Management (BAM), Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship (ISBE), IFERA, and International Teacher’s Programme (ITP).