Business transition, governance and managing relationships are vital components of family-run firms, and a course set up last year to explore these topics at Cambridge University resumes later this year.

Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education, based at the UK’s Cambridge University, is running its second programme - kicked off a year ago - covering issues confronting family-run businesses such as transfer.

The four-day programme is the brainchild of wealth management industry luminary Philip Marcovici and Iraj Ispahani of Ispahani Advisory. (Among other roles, Ispahani is a member of the WealthBriefing editorial advisory board).

This year’s event, which runs from 7-11 October, operates under the theme of the “circular economy”.

“For wealth- and business-owning families, there is much to gain from a focus on circularity. Capital needs real purpose and sparing use includes natural, financial and cultural capital, and not just parts and resources used in the production of goods. Minimising waste also means minimising the waste of useful resources within a family, such as inadequate use and motivation of family members who may not be involved directly in the family business, but who may have a direct or indirect stake in the family business or wealth,” Marcovici said in a note to this publication.

The event offers an opportunity for ultra-high net worth families and wealth creators to thrash out ideas – away from the prying eye of the media – and to learn about challenges such as handing businesses over to the younger generation, reducing conflicts, and dealing with cross-border issues. Originating in the US, it is a network for wealth creators working in a similar fashion to the TIGER 21 group, for example, (which now operates outside the US).

Attendees can choose topics such as organising and running individual family retreats, business strategy training (which can include professional management of the family business), personal and leadership development for the next generation, family governance and succession planning. Only owners of family businesses and/or passive wealth and their families can take part, and events are structured so that ideas can be exchanged in a safe environment  .

Iraj Ispahani is a graduate of the University of Cambridge, a 10th-generation member of a family-owned business, a board director of the Ispahani Group in Bangladesh, and the CEO of Ispahani Advisory, a London-based firm helping families and family offices.

Marcovici is a graduate of the law schools of the University of Ottawa and Harvard University; he teaches and is a global consultant on areas relevant to wealth planning, international taxation and family business and wealth. The author of The Destructive Power of Family Wealth, Philip is based in Hong Kong. (A review of his book can be found here.)

As a related point, this news service regularly updates its roundup of post-graduate/MBA-level courses which are pitched at the wealth management sector. We welcome readers’ feedback and suggestions.