Independent Director for Family Holdings in Luxembourg

My first mandate, in 2014, was in a family-controlled investment company. Since then I have been a director in several other holding companies managing family wealth. In most cases I also advise on the underlying investments through Value Associates, my consulting company, on subjects such as M&A, investment due diligence and financial modelling.

This dual role – director and adviser – suits many families. It gives them an independent voice at the board table who also understands the detail of the portfolio, and it keeps the number of outside parties involved in their affairs small.

Family governance has been one of the services Value Associates has offered to entrepreneurs and wealthy families since 2011. The recurring questions are practical: how to separate ownership from management, how decisions are taken and by whom, how the next generation is brought in, and how to keep a group of relatives aligned behind a common investment strategy.

An independent director can help here in a way no family member and no employee can. I bring a proven ability to build consensus, the discretion that families expect, and the independence to say when a proposal does not serve the long-term interest of the company and all its stakeholders. Luxembourg families often operate across several languages; I work in English, French and German and speak Luxembourgish.

Private holdings make investment decisions that would, in a large corporation, be prepared by a whole finance department. My contribution is to bring that rigour to the boardroom: valuation, financial modelling and financial analysis, skills I studied in depth at HEC Paris and have practised as a banker, as the corporate finance partner of Deloitte Luxembourg from 2002 to 2010 and as an independent adviser since.

Two engagements show what this means in practice. From 2011 to 2019 I provided financial modelling and project management assistance on a complex £100m property development near Trafalgar Square in London, and from 2014 to 2020 I served as a director of the property holding company that carried out and financed the project. Separately, I advised the private reference shareholder in a €200 million energy project in buying back the shares of his co-investor in a climate of dispute, restructuring the financing with the development banks involved and negotiating the entry of a new private investment partner.

Many families channel part of their wealth into philanthropy, and the governance of a foundation raises its own questions of purpose, stewardship and accountability. I am an independent director of Fondation Peters, established by Jean and Hélène Peters in 2013, whose fundamental values are Human Development, Solidarity, Fellowship and Social Responsibility, and which aims at making a difference to valuable causes selected with effort and care.

I am also a non-executive director of Santé Services SA, an affiliate of Fondation Hôpitaux Robert Schuman and a specialist provider of catering, logistics and consulting in the health sector. Both mandates are a reminder that good governance is as much about purpose and values as it is about numbers.

Highest integrity and an immaculate reputation are the starting point; without them, no family would open its affairs to an outsider. From there, I try to be useful in three ways: by reading the numbers behind the numbers, by thinking ahead about the consequences of a decision for the family and its companies, and by distilling complex matters into clear terms so that everyone around the table – including members who are not finance professionals – can decide on substance.

Ethics and long-term thinking have shaped my judgement throughout my career, and they matter most in family structures, where decisions taken today will be lived with by the next generation. My wider board portfolio is set out on my page as an independent director in Luxembourg, and my approach to corporate governance is described separately.