Large families
As business families grow beyond cousins’ consortiums, they face specific issues related to family cohesion, affectio societatis, governance, professionalization, strategy and diversification.
Across its member associations, FBN gathers circles of large families – defined as family enterprises with fifty owners, or thirty owners over two generations, or fifty family members – to learn and exchange among peers on topics such as: management of silent shareholders, succession of management to a family or a non-family member, education of and transfer of leadership and legitimacy to the Next Gen, pruning the tree or not, selection of family members for governance positions, foster entrepreneurial DNA, sustainability and diversification, etc.
Adrian Fuchs
TRANSACTION MANAGER AT ASHOKA/FASE, G8,
LARGE FAMILIES CO-CHAIR
Adrian Fuchs is a representative of the eighth generation of the Haniel family. He completed his PhD on the topic of impact investing in 2016 and is currently working as a transaction manager at Ashoka/FASE. Since 2020 he is a member of the family council (30 members) and the family committee (5 members). He is, among other things, responsible for all NextGen matters in the Haniel family. Adrian is a member of the Board of FBN Deutschland.
Priscilla de Moustiers
WENDEL, G9, FRANCE
Priscilla de Moustier chairs the board of Wendel-Participations, a 1200 plus member family company which dates back to 1704 and owns 39% (51% of voting rights) of Wendel, a listed investment company on the supervisory board of which she also sits. She is vice-president of the french chapter of the Family Business Network (FBN) and sat for 6 years on the board of FBN international. She belongs to the board and steering committee of ACTED, a large french NGO operating in the areas of emergency and development. She chairs the board of Fondation ACTED and of OXUS, a micro finance institution created with ACTED which is active in Central Asia (Afghanistan, Kirghizstan and Tadjikistan).
She holds an MBA from INSEAD as well as a degree in Mathematics, a degree in economics from the Paris university and the diploma of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences-Po). She is bilingual in French and English and speaks fluent russian.
She began her career negotiating the sale of turnkey factories for Creusot-Loire-Entreprises, served as a consultant for Mc Kinsey, worked for Berger-Levrault, another family business on new project development in the Metz technology park and ran the Joint Venture Club, an association designed to help understand and deal with the uncertainties of perestroika in Russia. In 1997 she was asked to supervise the creation and development of the Wendel International Large Family Enterprise center at INSEAD and has been ever since gradually getting more and more involved with Wendel and Wendel Participations and with the concept of family business and its importance worldwide.
She is convinced about the crucial importance of ESG.
