FBUK 25th anniversary
Grant Gordon echoes these sentiments, adding that the formation of the IFB was ultimately driven by “enlightened self-interest.” So, a group of like-minded family business owners set out to replicate Alex’s lightbulb moment. Dinosaurs and working capital One year later, having been introduced by Professor Alden Lank, Grant and Alex decided to bid for, and were successful in hosting, the global FBN conference in London, rallying support from 19 founding families who underwrote the costs. At the conference gala dinner, held at the Natural History Museum, Grant remembers a particular speech delivered beneath “Dippy the Diplodocus,” the museum’s most famous skeleton. “The speaker remarked that having the Diplodocus hanging above us was appropriate,” says Grant. “We needed to think about the long term to ensure family businesses didn’t go the way of the dinosaurs.” The event was a resounding success, not only in terms of the numbers attending but financially. The surplus profits it generated served as working capital to launch the Institute for Family Business.
Things were very different in 2001. The average UK house cost around £90,000 and gold cost just $250 an ounce. Major social media platforms didn’t exist, the first iPhone was still six years away and 9/11 changed the world forever. The landscape for Britain’s family businesses also looked remarkably different. While family firms have always been the backbone of the economy, the families behind them have often operated in silos, navigating the unique complexities of ownership, succession and governance in relative isolation. The “lightbulb moment” That changed following a very personal experience of Alex Scott, shortly after joining his own family business in the mid-1990s. He attended a global family business event in Lausanne, Switzerland, an experience he describes as “transformative”. “I sat in the audience and felt a weight lifting off my shoulders,” he recalls. “I was surrounded by people from completely different sectors, yet they were all dealing with the same stuff: multi-generational ownership, governance, and family dynamics. It was reassuring, educational and comforting.”
Martin Greig Family Business UK
In 2026, FBUK turns 25. Founded in 2001 as the Institute for Family Business (IFB), the organisation has grown from a fledgling initiative into the definitive voice for the sector. For this special anniversary article, we speak to the two people who started it all: Co-founders and Life Presidents, Alex Scott and Grant Gordon, about the organisation’s genesis, its evolution into a policy powerhouse, and the enduring value of peer-to- peer learning.
FBUK Issue 6 24
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