President, European Family Businesses – GEEF, Finland

Sessions: Day 2, Plenary 4 Ownership transfer: Future needs and actions

Philip Aminoff is Chairman of the Board, Electrosonic Group Oy Ab. He graduated from Hanken in 1986 with a M. Sc. (Econ.) and he also holds an MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau. Besides his position as working Chairman of the Board of Electrosonic Philip Aminoff is member of the board in Veho Group, Helvar Merca and Paulig as well as member of the administrative board of the Tapiola insurance company. Philip is also Chairman of the European Family Businesses (GEEF) and Finland’s representative in the EU’s Enterprise Policy Group.

Head Tax Policy Department, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Sweden
Chairman, Tax Policy Group Business Europe

Sessions: Day 1, Track A Tax and law issues in ownership transfers: Critical tax issues, ”Transfer of businesses – progress, status quo or backlash in the European member states”
Day 1, Plenary 2 Influence of taxes on Ownership Transfers

Krister Andersson is Head of the Tax Policy Department of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. Since 2005, he has been Chairman of the Fiscal Affairs Group of BUSINESSEUROPE (formerly the UNICE), Brussels and the chairman of their Task Force on CCCTB. He is assistant professor (Docent) in Economics at Lund University. He is a advisory board member of the Swedish National Tax Authority, the Swedish IFA branch, and the Association of Industry Treasurers. He is also a member of the BIAC Taxation and Fiscal Policy Committee and the International Chamber of Commerce Tax Commission, in Paris.

Chairman and owner, Mellby Gård AB, Sweden

Sessions: Day 1, Plenary 2 Influence of taxes on ownership transfers

Rune Andersson is a well known Swedish business leader. Before he started Mellby Gård AB in 1986 he was CEO of Trelleborg AB. Mellby Gård has developed to an international industry, trade and financial group.

When the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise established a special Tax Delegation Rune Andersson was designated one of it`s members specialized in family business taxation.

Professor, Cox Family Enterprise Centre, Kennesaw State University, US

Sessions: Day 2, Plenary 3 Success factors in ownership transfers

Joseph Astrachan is Wachovia Eminent Scholar Chair of Family Business, Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, executive director of the Cox Family Enterprise Center, and a founder of the internationally accredited Executive MBA for Families in Business at the Coles College of Business, Kennesaw State University near Atlanta, Georgia, USA. In addition he is Distinguished Research Chair of Family Business at Loyola University Chicago’s Business School. Astrachan is editor of the scientific publication the Journal of Family Business Strategy (an Elsevier title) and past editor Family Business Review. He is also editor of the Family Business Casebook Annual which publishes the best in teaching and educational family business cases. Astrachan has received multiple awards for his research and service from family business, entrepreneurship, and research oriented associations. He is author or coauthor of more than ten books including the much acclaimed Communication and Conflict in Family Business (with McMillan) and Mechanisms to Assure Family Business Cohesion: Guidelines for Family Business Leaders and Their Families (with Pieper). In addition to his non-profit board service, he serves on the boards of five privately-owned family businesses and comes from a family business background. His extended family has owned businesses ranging from container and tanker shipping to pharmaceuticals. Astrachan earned his B.A., M.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. degrees at Yale University.

Vice Chairman, Indiska, Sweden

Sessions: Day 1, Track B Critical issues in transfer processes: Succession as role transitions

2nd generation, owner Indiska Magasinet, a family owned Swedish retail company with 86 storers around Scandinavia.

Ph.D Candidate, London School of Economics, UK

Sessions: Day 1, Track C Next generation and ownership transfer: Social and psychological space for the next generation, ”Emotional ownership: The next generation’s relationship with the family firm”

I joined London Business School in 2003 to be part of the leadership in family business research initiative LIFBRI. I hold the IFB Fellowship, supported by the Institute for Family Business, Butane Group and WIlliam Grant & Sons.

Education/Accreditations: Masters in Science (MSc) from Sweden in Organisational and Clinical psychology, accrediting towards chartership in clinical psychology and a qualification in psychotherapy. Masters (MA) in Consulting to the Organisation at the Tavistock & NHS Portman Trust/University of East London. Enrolled in the PhD Programme in Employee Relations and Organisational Behaviour at London School of Economics & Political Science.

Founding member of the British Psychological Society Special Group for Coaching Psychology, BPS advanced accreditation in psychometric testing and feedback.

Research interests: Family psychology, leadership, culture and performance of family firms; psychodynamics of groups; impact of personality on leadership and group relations.

Related activities: Private bilingual coaching practice in London: a client group consisting mainly of entrepreneurs, focusing on personal development and leadership in fast-growing firms. Consultancy and education for family firms, as well as coaching for executive education and Centre of Management Development (CMD) at London Business School.

Chairman, Bonnier Family Foundation, Sweden
Executive Vice President, Dagens Industri

Sessions: Day 2, Plenary 3 Success factors in ownership transfer, ”Bonnier, a long history of transfers of ownership”

Hans-Jacob Bonnier obtained his M.Pol.Sc. degree from Stockholm University in 1973 and worked as marketing manager for Duni Sarl in France from 1974 to 1978 before his appointment in 1978 as President of Duni A/S in Norway. In 1982, Hans-Jacob Bonnier became Assistant to the President of Bonnierföretagen. In 1988, he started working as marketing manager of Bonnier Business Information and, in 1997, was named Executive Vice President of Dagens Industri. Hans-Jacob Bonnier is Chairman of the Family Business Network in Sweden, the European Business Press Federation and the Bonnier Family Foundation. He is also a Board member of Nordea and Stockholms Regional Board and Vice Chairman of Albert Bonnier ABs Board.

Professor, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

Sessions: Day 1, Track C, Next generation and ownership transfer: Social and psychological space for the next generation
Day 2, Track C, Next generation and ownership transfer: Competence development for new owners/managers

Ethel Brundin, PhD, is an Professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Management at Jönköping International Business School and a member of the CeFEO group. Prior to completing her PhD, she was an owner manager of two businesses started by her in Sweden and the UK within organizational and leadership training as well as a luncheon voucher company.

Ethel defended her thesis “Emotion in Motion, The Strategic Leader in a Radical Change Process” in 2002. The empirical context in the thesis was family businesses and owner managed companies. The thesis received a lot of media attention and met with interest from the international research community. It was ranked as one of the top ten dissertations in Europe in 2003 by EDAMBA Journal. She was, together with Leif Melin and Emilia Florin Samuelsson, the winner of the 2005 FBCG Alden G. Lank Research Award for their research paper: Family Ownership Logic – Core Characteristics of Family Controlled Businesses.

Ethel has published in international journals and edited books about strategic leadership, and immigrant, ethnic and social entrepreneurship as well as methodological issues. She has attended a range of international conferences, including FBN-IFERA research conferences and IFERA annual workshops, to present results from ongoing research. Her teaching is focused on Leadership and she has international teaching experience on undergraduate and graduate levels as well as from doctoral courses and executive training.

The focus of her research interest lies primarily within micro processes of family businesses, new business ventures and different arenas of strategic leadership. She is currently involved in the following research project within CeFEO: “The Logic of Ownership, Accountability and Emotions in Family Controlled Businesses” together with Professor Leif Melin and Emilia Florin Samuelsson, Ph.D. Three main research questions define the core of this project: (1) to characterize the logic of ownership that the family controlled firms and firms with concentrated ownership represent and analyze the consequences of such logic for the strategic development of the /family/ business; (2) to analyze how financial and management accounting practices affect structures and processes of accountability in the family controlled firm/ in the firm with concentrated ownership ; and (3) to analyze the role of emotions in ownership and governance processes in the family controlled firm/the firm with concentrated ownership.

In addition, Ethel is involved in the following research projects where emotions are in focus: “Employees’ Understanding of Managers’ Displays” together with Professor Dean Shepherd, University of Indiana, USA. The purpose of this research is to better understand the possible impact of CEO’s displayed emotions on the willingness of employees to be entrepreneurial. It is hoped that this research will assist CEOs to better manage their organizations to achieve entrepreneurial outcomes.

“Escalation of Commitment among CEOs/Entrepreneurs” together with Veronica Gustavsson, Ph.D., EMM department of JIBS. The purpose of this study is to better understand what emotional aspects that affects entrepreneurs and CEOs’ decision making regarding investments and the effect of escalation of commitment. She is also the project manager for an international research project between Sweden and South Africa about entrepreneurial learning and sustainability.

Director General, Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, Sweden

Sessions: Day 2, Plenary 4 Closing remarks

Urban Bäckström assumed his present position as Director General of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise in June 2005, after serving as Chief Executive Officer of one of Sweden’s largest life insurer, Skandia Liv, since 2003.

Mr. Bäckström is currently also the Deputy Chairman of Nasdaq OMX, a board member of AMF pension and a member of the board of the Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

On January 1, 1994 Mr. Bäckström was appointed Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, the Swedish Central Bank, and was reappointed for a second term on January 1, 1999 , under new legislation, as Chairman of the Executive Board and Governor of Sveriges Riksbank and stayed on until December 31, 2002.
During his nine year tenure with the Swedish Central Bank, Mr. Bäckström also served as a director on the Board of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), from 1994 to 1999. From March 1999 to February 2002, he was President and Chairman of BIS. In addition, he has represented Sweden as Governor of the International Monetary Fund, in the Group-of-Ten Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors, in the European Monetary Institute, the forerunner of the ECB, and in the General Council of the European Central Bank.

One of Urban Bäckström’s main responsibilities during his years as State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance (1991-1993) was to manage the Swedish banking crisis.
Prior to his work as State Secretary, Urban Bäckström held positions as Chief Executive Officer of a brokerage firm and Chief Economist of the Conservative Party. Furthermore, Mr Bäckström has, during the early 1980s, managed the family business, Hotel Mollberg in Helsingborg in the south of Sweden.
Mr. Bäckström holds a Bachelor of Science (Economics), Stockholm University 1979 and studied Ph.D. courses in Economics at Stockholm University and the Stockholm School of Economics.

Manager Corporate Tax, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Germany

Sessions: Day 1, Track A Tax and law issues in ownership transfers: Critical tax issues, ”Transfer of business to next generation – Recent developments in Germany”

Certified Tax Adviser, Master of International Taxation and Diplom-Kaufman. More than ten years of experience in tax consulting, adviser with special respect to inheritance and gift tax, frequent publications in tax technical literature