Governance, Communication & Strategy For Family Firms

When it comes to creating a family firm fit for the future, what needs to be done in terms of governance, communication and finance?

Life for many in the family business space over the past year has not been easy, but family firms have shown their resolve and resilience and are now beginning to look to the future. So, how do you go about creating a family firm fit for the future with regards governance, communication and finance?

Paul Andrews, Founder and CEO of Family Business United is joined by a panel of experts talking all things governance, communication and strategy and how to create a family firm fit for the future.

Our panellists:

Edouard Thijssen – Co-Founder and CEO at Trusted Family

Edouard is a next generation member from a multigenerational business family from Belgium, and co-founder and CEO of Trusted Family.

Trusted Family is an award-winning technology platform serving the world’s leading family businesses that provides a single, secure and centralized governance platform, enabling directors, shareholders, family members and their close advisors to easily connect, communicate and collaborate from anywhere, at any time, on any device.

The company is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, with offices in London and New York, and family business clients in 25 countries globally. The company leverages a decade of industry expertise to help multi-generational family businesses thrive and achieve sustainable, long-term success.

Jason Oakley – Founder and CEO at Recognise Bank

Jason is the CEO of Recognise, a Lombard MBA Banker, who has spent his entire 35-year career in banking and has considerable SME and commercial banking experience. Most recently he worked at Metro Bank where he was a member of the Executive Committee and a Managing Director of Commercial Banking and Mortgages and worked as Head of SME Banking at RBS and NatWest, serving over 1 million customers.

Jason appreciated that SMEs had a chronic lack of support from their banks – and in 2017 Recognise was born. He wanted to establish a bank that recognises the immense value of SMEs to the UK economy and wider society, and the extraordinary potential of that community which remains unrealised due to this lack of support.

Recognise takes much that was good about business banking from the past – experienced relationship managers who know and understand the businesses they work with, many of them family firms, who are based in the local community and will be in situ to build relationships and provide accessibility. They pair this with the latest cloud-based technology to offer business customers speed (appreciating time to cash is paramount for businesses) along with a human touch, that has been so lacking in mainstream banking in recent years.

They aim to listen and respond to family businesses, recognising that in many respects, it isn’t complicated. Their clarity of vision and purpose, combined with the best relationship managers makes them confident that they can give family businesses a banking experience that is truly useful, accessible and does what they really need it to do.

John Harte – Managing Partner at Integrity Governance

John leads a global team that is focused on making boards more effective. A boardroom expert working with multinationals and SME’s, he provides practical, impartial advice to directors, business owners and CEO’s to help improve performance. He is a regular speaker and thought leader on board effectiveness, practical governance and business disruption.

John grew up in a family business and his extended family run fifth generation businesses and he has also served as a board member, chairman and adviser to many family firms. He also worked within Mars, a globally recognised family business for the best part of a decade.