Professor, Universitá della Svizzera Italiana, Switzerland

Sessions: Day 1, Track D Consequences of ownership transfer for the business firm: Financial perspectives, ”Ownership fragmentation and family firms performance. The role of private banking”

Professor of Management at the University of Lugano and at the University of Varese (Insubria). Head of the Department of Management at the University of Lugano. Senior Faculty member at SDA * Bocconi (department of Strategy and Entrepreneurship), where he served as Chairperson, as director of International Projects and of Master Programmes. He is member of the editorial board ofManagement International (HEC Montreal) and reviewer of Long Range Planning, Academy of Management, EURAM, AIMS. He is member of the SMS (StrategicManagement Society), the AIMS (Association Internationale de Management Stratégique), the EURAM * European Academy of management), the SDS (System Dynamics Society). His field of research are: Merger &Acquisitions, Family Business, System thinking and complexity in management, Logic and rhetoric of strategic conversation.

Head of Press and Media, European Commission Representation in Sweden

Sessions: Day 1, Planery 1 Ownership transfer – a European perspective

Investor, Chairman, Svenssons i Lammhult, Sweden

Sessions: Track D Consequences of ownership transfer for the business firm: Financial perspectives, ”Reflections from an investor”

Stockholm School of Economics 1991-1995. After school I went to London to work with corporate finance, but returned soon and worked as a reporter for Finanstidningen. In the late 90’s I started an investor relations consultancy firm together with a partner. I left after five years and co-started Skruf Snus AB which was bought by Imperial Tobacco in 1997. Today I work as an investor and chairman in consumer related companies, for example Svenssons i Lammhult and Risenta.

Lawyer, Taylor Wessing, London, UK

Sessions: Day 2, Track A Tax and law issues in ownership transfer: European experiences from a business law perspective

Robert is a Corporate partner at Taylor Wessing specialising in IPOs and secondary issues on the Equity Capital Markets in London and in M&A.
Transactions on which Robert has advised recently include the £180m merger by way of scheme of arrangement of Linton Park plc and fully listed Camellia plc, secondary fundraisings by Faroe Petroleum, Mintails and Manpower Software, the takeover of James R Knowles (Holdings) plc, the sale of Cramer Systems to Amdocs for $425m, the sale of Jacobs Rimell to Amdocs and the sale of Protocol Skills, acting for Bridgepoint Capital, to Close Brothers Private Equity. Robert has 20 years experience in advising both brokers and companies on public market transactions and in advising on M&A.
A regular speaker at external conferences, Robert has spoken at many IPO and Listing Rules conferences. He is a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and qualified at Linklaters.

Robert Fenner’s work is of an ‘ extremely high standard and is carried out effectively’ – Legal 500 2009

Director General, Institute for Family Business, UK

Sessions: Day 1, Plenary 2 Influence of taxes on ownership transfers, ”Transfer of ownership: the situation for UK family firms”

Grant Gordon is the Director General and a co-founder of the Institute for Family Business (UK), established in 2001 as an independent not-for-profit association promoting the success and sustainability of family firms.

He has been on the board of Laurent-Perrier SA as a non-executive Director since 1999. Laurent-Perrier S.A. is the leading family controlled Champagne house and is quoted on the Paris Stock Exchange. Grant’s experience in the drinks industry extends to spirits. He served for sixteen years as a board member at his family’s firm, independent Scotch Whisky distillers William Grant & Sons Ltd.

His other interests include philanthropy where he is Chairman of the Thames Community Foundation, a charity serving local needs in seven boroughs of South West London.

Lawyer, BGS Law, Paris, France

Sessions: Day 2, Track A Tax and law issues in ownership transfer: European experiences from a business law perspective

Ph.D Candidate, University of Pennsylvania, US

Sessions: Day 1, Track D Consequences of ownership transfer for the business firm: Financial perspectives, ”Family firms in the eye of private equity companies”

Darya Granata is a PhD candidate in Management at the University of Lugano, Switzerland. She is currently attending the Visiting Scholar program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the United States. Darya’s last working experience was at the investment banking firm Fairfield Partners, where she assisted privately owned midsize companies in acquisitions and divestitures. She accomplished advanced PhD courses, completed the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program and speaks 7 languages.

CEO, Indiska , Sweden

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

3rd generation in Indiska Magasinet and daugther to Christina Baines.

Ph.D, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

Sessions: Day 1, Track B Critical issues in transfer processes: Succession as role transitions, ”The human side of business transfer: A role transition perspective on succession in owner-managed firms”

Annika Hall (Ph.D in Management) is affiliated with CeFEO and Jönköping International Business School, Sweden. Dr. Hall defended her thesis “Strategising in the context of genuine relations: An interpretative study of strategic renewal through family interaction” in September 2003. In addition to research, Dr. Hall is engaged in undergraduate and executive research over the last ten years, both in Sweden and abroad. She has been invited guest lecturer at universities in Germany, Spain, Italy and Finland. In 2000 she spent part of the spring as visiting research fellow at University of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Hall has published her research in journals such as Family Business Review and Scandinavian Journal of Organisational Psychology, as well as in edited books. She regularly presents her research at international conferences such as FBN-IFERA reserch conference, IFERA annual workshop, EGOS Colloquium and European Academy of Management (EURAM). She has also taken part in arranging international conferences on family business in Sweden (IFERA 2004 and EIASM workshop on family business management, June 2005). Dr Hall has received several awards for her research. Among these are the Alden G Lank award for best paper at the 2002 FBN World conference, the Family Firm Insitute’s award for best doctoral dissertation for 2004 and the best unpublished research paper award from the Family Firm Institute in 2005.

Annika Hall’s current research is carried out both individually and in international research teams. Present research projects concern issues such as external management of family owned businesses, role- and identity perspectives on family business dynamics, familiness and social capital within family firms, and the transmission of values over time in growing, multigenerational family firms and its impact on strategy development and firm performance. Dr. Hall is co-founder of Center for Family Enterprise and Ownership (CeFEO) at Jönköping International Business School, the first research and learning center in the Nordic countries devoted to family business and ownership issues, where she also teaches at undergraduate, graduate and executive levels. She is also an appreciated speaker to family firms and organizations working with family firms.

Research Fellow, Jönköping International Business School, Sweden

Sessions: Day 2, Track D Consequences of ownership transfer for the business firm: Growth implications

Karin Hellerstedt is a PhD and lecturer at Jönköping International Business School. She has conducted research on entrepreneurship in knowledge intensive industries, and on how firms and teams are formed and develop over time. She has been involved in several research projects dealing with different aspects of entrepreneurship such as academic, rural and knowledge intensive entrepreneurship. Karin Hellerstedt has written and published several research reports and published in international peer review journals. Her current research centers around ownership transitions and the succession of privately held businesses.