Member of the Board of Directors
Member of the Audit and Finance Committee
Appointed 1992
François M. de Visscher (°1953) is Founder and President of de Visscher & Co., a leading financial advisory firm for business owning families throughout the world, based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Since its founding in 1990, de Visscher & Co. has advised well over 300 families in the United States, Europe and Latin America. The firm specializes in designing and implementing capital programs to allow family businesses to grow and family shareholders to realize their liquidity objectives. To complement its consulting and investment banking activities with business owning families, Mr. de Visscher founded in 1998 a private equity fund for High Net Worth Individuals, Family Capital Growth Partners LLC.
Prior to starting his own firm, Mr. de Visscher was a Partner at Smith Barney, Harris Upham & Co., predecessors of Salomon Smith Barney in New York, where he founded the first group on Wall Street to specialize in advising family owned companies.
From 1998 to 2001 Mr. de Visscher was President of the Family Firm Institute, the world’s leading organization of consultants, researchers and educators in the field of family businesses.
François de Visscher is a Certified Public Accountant, Director of the Global Leadership Institute and a member of the Board of Directors of the Belgian American Chamber of Commerce. Mr. de Visscher is a frequent contributor on family business matters to several publications, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Nation’s Business, Crain’s, Inc Magazine, and Family Business Magazine.