Family Business Transformation: From Founder-Led to Future-Ready
Event Details
C-level Workshop
Family Business Transformation: From Founder-Led to Future-Ready
- 9:30 - 9:45 Registration & Coffee
- 9:45 - 10:00 Opening Welcome
- 10:00 – 11:15 Main Session: From Founder-Led to Future-Ready Family Business
- 11:15 – 11:45 Case Interview: A Family Business in Transition
- 11:45 - 12:15 Coffee Break
- 12:15 – 1:15 Parallel Roundtables
- Roundtable A — Navigating Succession and Managing Family Tensions
- Roundtable B — Professionalizing Without Losing Family Control
- 1:15 - 1:30 Cross-Report Summary and Closing
AGENDA DETAILS
- 9:30 - 9:45 Registration & Coffee
- 9:45 - 10:00 Opening Welcome
Opening remarks from the Armenian Institute of Directors will frame why governance should be seen as a protection mechanism for family wealth, business continuity, and family unity - not as bureaucracy. The welcome will also position the next decade as a critical period for Armenian family businesses, many of which will face questions of founder transition, next-generation readiness, and institutionalization for the first time.
- 10:00 – 11:15 Main Session: From Founder-Led to Future-Ready Family Business
This presenter led session will focus on the governance, ownership, and succession challenges family businesses face as they grow beyond the founder-led stage.
The lecture will explore how the strengths that help founders build successful companies - trust, speed, personal authority, informal decision-making, and family loyalty - can become risks as the business grows and enters a new generation. The central question is how a family business can become future-ready while preserving ownership control, business performance, family relationships, and long-term legacy.
Speaker: Aleksandr Shaghikyan, Regional Head of Advisory, BDO Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)
- 11:15 – 11:45 Case Interview: A Family Business in Transition
This 30-minute moderated interview will bring the lecture themes to life through the experience of a next-generation Armenian business leader who has stepped into the CEO role of a family business.
The discussion will focus on leadership transition, the founder’s evolving role, practical governance lessons, and what should have been discussed earlier.
Interviewee: Edgar Avetisyan, Shareholder and CEO at ProfAl [To be confirmed]
Moderator: Aleksandr Shaghikyan, Regional Head of Advisory at BDO Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)
- 11:45 - 12:15 Coffee Break
A structured coffee break with light refreshments. Participants can continue conversations from the main session, exchange experiences with peers, and connect informally with AIoD and BDO representatives. This break should be used intentionally, as some of the most valuable discussions are likely to emerge around founder dependency, succession uncertainty, professionalization challenges, and family alignment.
- 12:15 – 1:15 Parallel Roundtables
Participants will choose the topic most relevant to their current stage and join a facilitated peer discussion. The aim is to surface real dilemmas, compare approaches, and identify the governance questions each family business needs to address more deliberately.
Roundtable A — Navigating Succession and Managing Family Tensions
Facilitator: Aleksandr Shaghikyan, Regional Head of Advisory at BDO Caucasus and Central Asia (CCA)
This roundtable will focus on succession as a process, not a single appointment or inheritance decision. Participants will discuss when succession planning should begin, how successor readiness can be assessed, how the founder’s role should evolve, and how to manage family tensions before they become disputes.
Core discussion question:
How can a family make succession decisions that are fair enough for the family, but disciplined enough for the business?
Roundtable B — Professionalizing Without Losing Family Control
Facilitator: Armenuhi Hovakimyan, CEO at Armenian Institute of Directors (AIoD)
This roundtable will explore how growing family businesses can introduce outside management, clearer accountability, reporting, internal controls, and structured decision-making without losing family influence, identity, or ownership voice.
Core discussion question:
How can professional management and governance systems be introduced without weakening the family’s ownership voice and culture?
- 1:15 - 1:30 Cross-Report Summary and Closing
The forum will close with brief summaries from each roundtable, allowing participants to benefit from both discussions. Rapporteurs will highlight recurring dilemmas, practical observations, and key questions that require deeper attention, without sharing confidential business-specific details.
The session will conclude by inviting participants to reflect on one governance question they should take back to their family, board, or leadership team.
MAIN SPEAKER
GUEST and FACILITATOR
Participation:
AIoD members: free of charge
AIoD guests and friends: 50,000 AMD
If not registered yet, hurry up to reserve your seat as there is a limited capacity up to 50 participants.