The Arab-German Family Business Summit is hosted and organized by the International Institute for Family Enterprise (IIFE), a research institute at the Witten/Herdecke University in Germany.

The meeting brought together at the Dead Sea resort representatives from 150 prominent family businesses from the Arab world and the German-speaking countries.

The conference was also attended by academics from the world’s renowned universities such as Harvard University, Yale University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the London School of Economics.

Conferees came together to exchange views on a variety of important topics such as the structuring of family businesses for the next generations, different styles of leadership and high performance of boards in family businesses, organizers said.

“The success of this year’s summit is derived from its being the premiere hub to engage with other family businesses, exclusively on an owner level, and by providing a means to open new business perspectives and networks,” a statement issued at the end of the conference said.

The IIEF was co-founded in 2007 by Paul Dietze and Tim Tiller after a trip to Cairo in 2007.

They later pioneered the establishment of the Arab-German Family Business Summit, as a platform that brought together leading Arab and German businesses.

The gathering held its first meeting in Cairo in 2008 and the second conference was hosted by Bahrain in 2009.