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Philippe Haspeslagh
G2, Honorary Chairman of Ardo & President of FBN Belgium
Professor Philippe Haspeslagh is the President of FBN Belgium and the Honorary Chairman of his family business, Ardo, Europe’s leading fresh-frozen vegetable company, born out of a merger between two competing companies run by 7 cousins.
He is the Honorary Dean of the Vlerick Business School, with campuses in Brussels, Ghent and Leuven, which he led from 2008 to 2015. From 1979 to 2008, he was a faculty member at INSEAD, where he held the Paul Desmarais Chair of Active Ownership. He was also a Visiting Professor at the Harvard Business School (1990) and the Stanford Business School (1985).
He has been an independent director in multiple listed and private family businesses, including currently SONAE SGPS, a 6 billion euro Euronext-listed Portuguese diversified family company.
Professor Haspeslagh has an MBA and DBA from the Harvard Business School where he was a Baker Scholar. He is married to Martine Vanden Poel and has two children and two grandchildren.
Session
When an agreed generational transition hits a roadblock
Case Study
Roles and interaction between now-gen and next-gen in redefining next-generation ownership and governance.
The session will present the generational transition case of Ardo, a 1.4b leader in frozen foods with a strong commitment to sustainability and regenerative agriculture, owned and managed by 7 cousins to the next generation of 21. The case will be presented in slide form with intermediate decision points to get a reaction from the audience and with a Q&A facilitated by the moderator.
An earlier case presentation at the 2017 FBN Summit focused on the rather unique 2014 merger process between two competing branches of the same family and the resulting family, shareholder and company governance, with a shareholder agreement for 10 years.
This session discusses how the family- three years before the date- embarked on the handover process, putting the next generation in the lead to write their own story in terms of agreements and governance for their generation, with a new family charter and ownership agreement.
The process hit a roadblock just before signing, however, as the youngest of the second-generation cousins declared that he still decided for his children and wanted to sell to grow his own business.
Should the family buy him out, or privilege the company's growth by bringing in an external party, thereby leaving 100% ownership?