Transformative family leadership for a sustainable economy

Family businesses and private investment are powerful forces in the global economy. Across all regions, purpose-driven families have helped drive innovation and improve the quality of life for millions. 

Too often, however, global growth has come at a spiralling cost to communities, nature and climate, stoking drivers of division and conflict. Unsustainable practices trigger converging risks for people and planet. They generate tensions within families and within the communities and societies they are a part of, undermining opportunities for long-term value creation and balanced ways of living and working. 

CISL supports families to clarify their purpose in an age of disruption and lead transformational change across generations. Through our deep expertise in sustainable leadership, finance, and systems thinking, the programme positions private wealth within the broader global context and unlock a new platform for impact-led families to shape the future we need.  

 Leadership in an Age of Turbulence 

Wealth and business owning families face unique responsibilities and pressures. Externally, they must navigate converging risks, system shocks and economic transformations to create and protect value over the long term in ways that are consistent with their purpose and values. Families face increasing scrutiny in relation to growing inequality, demands for more equitable and inclusive models of wealth creation, and ownership of carbon-intensive assets and enterprises. Collectively, these pressures will require a fundamental rethink of the nature of value, how value is created, and for whom.  

Internally, many families also need to find ways to engage with the voices, values and priorities of new generations. Family wealth can be destructive or open pathways for collective impact and fulfilment. Understanding personal horizons and balancing the different perspectives of wealth creators and wealth inheritors and finding routes to ‘regenerative’ leadership that embraces the strengths and ambitions of different generations is fundamental to ensure that families and their capital (human, social and financial) evolve and flourish for long term success and impact.  

The programme is designed to include a dual focus on the external and internal dynamics at play and how these interrelate. Drawing upon expert knowledge and peer insights, critical challenges and opportunities are addressed through an exploration of new models of succession, stewardship and leadership. 

"The more progressive families are consciously investing in themselves – building their capacity to lead change, but also learning how to unlearn, how to let go of their prevailing worldview or legacy behaviours, accepting the need sometimes to challenge the status quo, and taking stock of their values, their purpose and the contribution that they make to society through a fresh look at the notion of stewardship.”

Dame Polly Courtice DBE, LVO, Emeritus Director and Senior Ambassador, CISL

Watch CISL Founder and former Director, Dame Polly Courtice, at the Family Business Conference in February 2021.

The opportunity to lead from the front

Families often operate with the longest planning horizon in the economy—uniquely positioned to shape decisions today that will influence outcomes well beyond 2050. They also have the ability to prepare emerging generations to lead with clarity, purpose, and resilience. 

Unlike other economic actors, families often have multiple, integrated routes to long-term influence: 

• Enterprise and entrepreneurship : Many families are at the helm of major businesses or have deep entrepreneurial roots. This positions them to drive the transition to more sustainable, inclusive business models and pioneer commercially viable solutions to global challenges. 
• Capital deployment: With the flexibility to invest with purpose, families can use their capital to support the transformation of economies and markets—rewarding innovation, sustainability, and long-term value creation. 
• Philanthropy, social influence, and lifestyle leadership: Through philanthropy, impact investing, and the values they embody in how they live, families can accelerate positive change across communities and generations. 

Join the next cohort of the Multigenerational Leadership Programme to explore how your family can lead with purpose, navigate complexity, and shape the future we all share. 

Programme Goals and Design

The programme has a unique learning design with a dual focus on external and internal leadership to optimise learning and practical impact.It supports families in clarifying their purpose and applying it to transform how wealth and value are created, managed, and shared—across generations and with society. 

Key benefits include: 

1. Global insight, grounded relevance. Learning from world-class faculty, international experts, and peer families as they share evidence-based insights into the global trends shaping business, wealth, and society. 
2. Tailored support. Structured guidance throughout the programme to enable you to explore your unique context, align purpose with action, and develop commercially viable strategies that reflect family values and social impact. 
3. Peer-led co-creation. Work alongside other families to share practical solutions and co-develop new approaches to common challenges. 
4. Courageous conversations. Engage in open, facilitated dialogue around sensitive and complex topics—such as wealth in an age of inequality, intergenerational power dynamics, and the evolving role of private capital. 
5. Pathways to partnership. Identify and explore opportunities for collaboration on long-term impact initiatives—across areas like education, health, migration, and environmental regeneration. 
6. Lifelong peer community. Join a trusted, international network of like-minded families committed to continued learning, exchange, and purposeful leadership. 
7. The opportunity to learn from peers, leading academics and international experts sharing evidence-based future-focused insights into the most relevant trends and challenges for families at global or regional level. 
8. Structured support throughout the programme to help participants explore purpose specific to their context and develop transformative, commercially relevant strategies and tools that reflect family values and the needs and aspirations of their communities. 
9. Faculty facilitated opportunities to learn and co-create with peers, sharing existing solutions and working together to create new solutions. 
10. A safe space to hear radical voices and debate challenging and sensitive issues, such as the future of wealth in a context of growing inequality and new paradigms of power. 
11. Opportunities to explore and develop major long-term partnerships to drive impact on shared priorities, from education, health and migration to environmental regeneration. 
12. Membership of a trusted, international peer community for long-term support, dialogue and sharing of experience. 

This programme complements existing family-focused initiatives by offering a holistic, forward-looking space to reimagine the role of family wealth and business in shaping a resilient, equitable future. 

"Family and business continuity is an inadequate goal for an ambitious wealth and business owning family. Families can enjoy the possibility of more than just continuity – families can regenerate and benefit from igniting new generations of family stewards and entrepreneurs to not only steward and continue, but to build and contribute.”

Philip Marcovici, Founding Advisor to the Multi-Generational Leadership Programme

Who should attend?

Our ambition is to engage the most impact-focused families internationally to build a leading forum for change which benefits from wide diversity of perspective and experience.

The programme is designed for family members who are responsible for shaping family purpose, values and priorities, for driving value creation or for stewarding assets. Participants may come from different generations, from family elders to those currently leading decision-making or next generation members preparing for a future leadership role. The programme is open to individual family members and to small groups of representatives from the same family (e.g. spanning different generations or responsibilities). The key criteria for participation are focused on the potential of those attending to contribute – to the programme and to our world.

In addition, all participants must:

• Hold an undergraduate degree (or equivalent)
• Be proficient in English
• Be available to complete all key dimensions of the programme and contribute to peer-to-peer sessions.

Note: The programme is not designed for multi-family offices, advisors or bankers (CISL is exploring complementary learning and networking opportunities for influential stakeholders from the wider private wealth ecosystem).

However, there will be a very limited number of single-family office representatives who hold senior roles with the families they serve and can accompany family members on the Multi-Generational Leadership journey. While not all sessions will be open to non-family participants (to ensure fully open dialogue), these representatives will benefit hugely from attendance and be able to help their respective families engage with this programme over the longer term, especially where families have different members participating from year to year.

“Families must in parallel address internal issues which can become greater derailers than the challenges of the external environment. Families must ensure that they themselves are sustainable. Family continuity can be undermined without adequate preparation for succession.” 

Iraj Ispahani, Founding Advisor to the Multi-Generational Leadership Programme

Advisory Group

This programme is informed and supported by an International Advisory Group. These individuals will draw on their wealth of experience to inform the programme design and contribute to the programme. 

Who delivers the programme?

For over 30 years, CISL has worked at the heart of The University of Cambridge to deliver leadership and education programmes for some of the most influential individuals and organisations worldwide. We combine academic excellence, industry expertise and influential thinking to ensure the content is suitable, diverse and stretches thinking, shapes behaviours and informs practice.

This programme will be delivered by CISL’s international network of Senior Associates, Fellows and guest contributors with additional insights from University thought leaders and members of the Advisory Group.

"There is so much families can learn from each other and so much more wealth and business owning families can contribute to dialogue on all aspects of sustainability. CISL provides an academic voice and a safe environment to explore topics critical to families and to their communities and world. Our work on exploring how a circular economy mindset can impact governance and decision-making is exciting and is helping families to navigate an increasingly troubled world where risks to wealth and business owners abound.”

Philip Marcovici, Founding Advisor to the Multi-Generational Leadership Programme

Applications

To learn more, please contact multi-generational.leadership@cisl.cam.ac.uk.