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.
