SCOTLAND LEADING THE WORLD IN FAMILY BUSINESS CONSULTANCY

Flying in from the USA to join family business doyen Ken McCracken, his Scottish colleagues and Martin Stepek, CEO of the Scottish Family Business Association, was Amelia Renkert-Thomas, the Yale and Harvard-educated founder and President of Fisher Renkert LLC, the Connecticut-based consulting firm focused on multi-generational business succession planning. She is a direct descendent of the family behind the Fisher-Price toy company.

Then on Thursday May 5, FBS hosted Mario Duca, another of their global colleagues and head of the newly-established Maltese Association of Family Enterprises, to help the fledgling organisation develop and grow its influence in the island. FBS was appointed last year to provide locally-based consulting and training services for enterprising Maltese families, family businesses and family offices - marking its expansion into the Mediterranean market.

The Scottish Family Business Association (SFBA) was engaged to help the Maltese develop an association for family businesses based on the unique and successful Scottish model. SFBA’s Martin Stepek, who advised and assisted the Maltese in setting up their association, was invited along to offer his experience and help to his Maltese counterparts.

FBS's Ken McCracken said: "Family businesses and business families all over the world share the same challenges like succession issues, governance and managing the business of the family. FBS aims to be at the forefront of family business knowledge, consulting and training and we believe that by licensing our innovative knowledge and practice we can help strengthen the survival rates of family businesses, which can only be good for the wider economy."

SFBA's Martin Stepek said: "Family Business Solutions, with a Head Office in Glasgow, is a world-class organisation with global reach drawing on decades of Scottish business acumen. It’s fantastic that Scotland is leading the world as experts in what is by far the most important part of not only the Scottish economy but the world economy. “I love the idea of an internationally-recognised family business expert from the USA - with direct Fisher-Price heritage and credentials – coming to join a Glasgow-based global family business consultancy group to share her expertise in developing family business. It’s like one of our football teams signing a top international footballer.

FBS is exporting world-leading innovative skills and bringing inward investment of great thinkers and practitioners like Amelia and Mario. This is what twenty-first century outward-looking, knowledge-based, exporting and investing Scottish business should be all about.”

Adrienne Airlie is Senior Partner with Glasgow accountants Martin Aitken & Co who are family business accountants and sponsors of SFBA. She said: "We should celebrate the fact that we have a world-class family business consultancy here on our doorstep. The firm has long recognised and supported the case for a much higher level of education and support for family businesses in Scotland and we are delighted that Family Business Solutions has expanded its global reach and reputation in this way. We look forward to working with them for the benefit of Scotland's family-owned businesses."