NextGen: entrepreneurs, successors, and re-founders — highlights from Family Stories 2026

An annual gathering for family businesses 

Since its creation, Family Stories has brought together each year business leaders, entrepreneurial families, family offices, investors, and advisors around a shared conviction: great family stories are a foundation for prosperity and progress within our territories. 

Through thematic roundtables, plenary sessions, and networking moments, the event contributes to the dissemination of best practices in governance, structuring, growth, and succession. 

This 4th edition focused on the quiet strength of family businesses—their ability to endure over time through transmission, transformation, and reinvention. 

The NextGen roundtable: when the new generation takes the floor Cécile de Lisle, Executive Director of the HEC Paris – Dieter Schwarz Center for Family Business and a member of a mid-sized family business, took part in the roundtable titled “NextGen: entrepreneurship, differently” (4:25–5:10 PM), alongside: 

• Édouard de Saint Pierre, CEO France, Lombard Odier 


• Nils Rousselet, Director of International Development, NextGen Club, AFFO 


• Christine Riou, Chairwoman, Riou Glass 

The discussion highlighted a generation that is reshaping the codes of family entrepreneurship, driven by its own vision and values—while also navigating specific expectations and tensions. 

Several key insights emerged: 

“You are not heirs. You are entrepreneurs, successors, and re-founders.” — Cécile de Lisle 

“We are born into a family of blood, and I am building a family of meaning.” — Christine Riou 

“The entity comes before the individual.” — Nils Rousselet 

“68% of the NextGen individuals we have spoken to say they want to go and do something else.” — Édouard de Saint Pierre 

The roundtable also raised an important point: the place of those within the NextGen who do not wish to take over the family business. As Christine Riou noted: “We do not leave much room for those who do not want to be entrepreneurs—and we should look at them with just as much admiration.” 

NEXTGEN AT THE HEART OF THE CENTER’S MISSION 

These questions—how to support the next generation in succession, transformation, and innovation; how to reconcile legacy with entrepreneurial spirit—are precisely at the core of the mission of the HEC Paris – Dieter Schwarz Center for Family Business. Through its research, teaching, and partnerships, the Center is committed to producing actionable knowledge and to training the future actors of family businesses: successors, entrepreneurs, executives, and advisors. We warmly thank Décideurs Magazine and Groupe FICADE for this unique platform for exchange, and all speakers for the quality and generosity of their contributions.

Learn more about the HEC Paris – Dieter Schwarz Center for Family Business