Peter Vogel
Family-owned and founder-led businesses generate most of the world’s private wealth, yet most do not survive past the second generation. Governance, succession, and capital allocation across an owning family are treated as private matters until they become commercial crises. The discipline of running an enterprising family, the businesses, the family office, and the philanthropy, as a coherent system is largely unwritten.
Peter Vogel is Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship at IMD and one of Europe’s leading voices on how enterprising families build, govern, and pass on capital across generations.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Peter Vogel
- He holds the Debiopharm Chair for Family Philanthropy at IMD, one of the only dedicated academic chairs in Europe focused on how wealthy families turn giving into strategy rather than reputation management.
- His two reference books, Family Philanthropy Navigator and Family Office Navigator, function as operating manuals for principals and advisors, and the philanthropy title won the Axiom Business Book Awards silver medal.
- He directs the IMD Global Family Business Center, which gives him a live view across hundreds of enterprising families and their governance, succession, and investment decisions.
- He is also an operator: founder and non-executive Chairman of Delta Venture Partners, which means founder and family-office audiences hear practitioner judgement, not only academic frameworks.
- Family Capital ranked him among the Top 100 Family Influencers globally, and Poets&Quants named him to its Best 40 Under 40 business school professors list.
Biography highlights
- Professor of Family Business and Entrepreneurship, IMD Business School, Lausanne.
- Debiopharm Chair for Family Philanthropy and Director, IMD Global Family Business Center.
- Co-author of Family Philanthropy Navigator (Axiom Business Book Awards Silver Medal) and Family Office Navigator.
- Author of Generation Jobless? (Palgrave Macmillan) on the youth employment crisis.
- Founder and non-executive Chairman, Delta Venture Partners AG; Associate Partner, Cambridge Family Enterprise Group.
- Inducted into the Family Business Hall of Fame (2024); Poets&Quants Best 40 Under 40 business school professors (2022).
Biography
Most family businesses do not survive the second generation, and most family offices are built reactively, after a liquidity event, with little design behind them. The work that decides whether enterprising families compound capital or destroy it happens in governance, succession, and philanthropy, areas treated as private until they go wrong in public. Peter Vogel’s research and teaching at IMD sit precisely there.
At IMD Business School in Lausanne, he holds the Debiopharm Chair for Family Philanthropy and directs the Global Family Business Center, which works with principals, next-generation owners, and their advisors across continents. The chair, funded by the Debiopharm Group, is one of very few dedicated academic posts in Europe focused on how families convert wealth into strategic giving rather than reputational signalling.
His two reference books, Family Philanthropy Navigator and Family Office Navigator, are used by family principals and their advisors as practical operating guides. The philanthropy title won the Axiom Business Book Awards silver medal. Before the family-enterprise work, he wrote Generation Jobless? (Palgrave Macmillan), a global analysis of youth unemployment built on interviews with policymakers, employers, and young entrepreneurs.
He is also a practitioner. He founded and chairs Delta Venture Partners, an early-stage investment firm, and is an Associate Partner of the Cambridge Family Enterprise Group. Family Capital has named him to its Top 100 Family Influencers list; Poets&Quants placed him among its Best 40 Under 40 business school professors; and in 2024 he was inducted into the Family Business Hall of Fame.
Key speaking topics
- Family business governance and succession
- Family office design and operating models
- Strategic philanthropy for enterprising families
- Next-generation ownership and leadership
- Entrepreneurship inside family enterprises
- Multi-generational wealth and capital allocation
Ideal for
- Principals and next-generation members of family-owned businesses and family offices
- Advisors to enterprising families: private banks, wealth managers, multi-family offices, legal and tax counsel
- Boards of family-controlled companies considering succession, governance reform, or philanthropic strategy
- Foundation trustees and philanthropy leaders inside enterprising families
Audience outcomes
- A clearer view of what separates family enterprises that survive transitions from those that fragment
- A vocabulary for the three connected systems in an enterprising family: the operating business, the family office, and the philanthropy
- Practical reference points for governance design, ownership succession, and next-generation engagement
- A sharper sense of where philanthropy belongs in family strategy and where it does not
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Asia Pacific | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Europe | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Middle East & Africa | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| South America | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| United Kingdom | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US East Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| US West Coast | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |
| Virtual | €12000 to €40000 | £10,001 - £35,000 | $15000 - $50000 |