INSEAD is delighted to announce a second major gift from French investment and holding company, WENDEL Investissement and its Dutch subsidiary, Oranje-Nassau. The gift of 3.5 million euro brings the company's total support for INSEAD to a total of 5 million euro and will be used to establish the 'Wendel International Centre for Family Enterprise'. The Centre will help to raise awareness of the importance of family enterprise in the economy: not only are family firms the most prevalent type of company worldwide - they are also proven to be amongst the most successful. It is to be led by INSEAD's three internationally recognised authorities in the field of family enterprise: Professor Randel Carlock, Professor Ludo Van der Heyden and Christine Blondel.
The Centre will also allow INSEAD to build on the outstanding research that is already being carried out by the school's faculty members in this field, to run events and training programmes that will benefit family firms across the globe.
The gift is a major boost for the recently launched 200 million euro fundraising initiative, The INSEAD Campaign: a business school for the world, and a commitment that will enable INSEAD to become the world's leading business school in the field of family enterprise - an ambition that is already well on the way to becoming a reality thanks to the previous generosity of WENDEL Investissement. In 1995, the company endowed the 'Wendel Chair for the Large Family Firm' allowing family enterprise to become an important and popular area of work at INSEAD.
Speaking of the company's forthcoming 300th anniversary, Ernest-Antoine Seilliýre, Chairman of WENDEL Investissment said: "Our family business has been led since 1704 by generation and generation of the Wendel family, which makes this a wonderfully fitting occasion to increase INSEAD's capacity to study family firms. We are extremely happy to have this opportunity to enable INSEAD's students and faculty to find out more about family enterprise."
Dr Randel Carlock, the Berghmans Lhoist Chaired Professor of Entrepreneurial Leadership, is to be Director of the Centre. He believes it will be an important source of new thinking and teaching for family businesses around the world. Dr Carlock explained that, "during the past decade family business has become recognised as a superior form of economic organisation by academics, financial markets, governments and the larger communities they serve."
He added: "It was the Wendel family, based on their tradition of family business leadership and ownership experience, who appreciated the importance of this emerging phenomena and encouraged INSEAD to teach and research on the topic. Their initial interest and funding were the seed that has now developed into the announcement of a major INSEAD research centre named after the Wendel family."
About the donor
WENDEL Investissement was created to invest in companies active in the industrial and service sectors, and to help them become international leaders. WENDEL Investissement is a full industrial and financial partner: it supports entrepreneurial teams by monitoring operations on a regular basis, helps define ambitious strategies and provides the financing needed to ensure the success of the companies in which it has invested.
Oranje-Nassau is a wholly owned Dutch subsidiary of WENDEL Investissement. It is active in two business sectors: energy and real estate. Oranje-Nassau is also the holding company for several WENDEL Investissement equity interests, as well as for miscellaneous direct financial investments.
