“I grew up in Barcelona in a family with its own business. This taught me to appreciate the special value that family enterprise organizations contribute to society. It also taught me that to generate value across generations, enterprising families need to actively and purposefully define the strategies, and develop the talent and the governance that will position them for the future. My motivation comes from wanting to help families accomplish this process, using their values and purpose as stewards of the family enterprise”
Neus is a trusted advisor, researcher and educator in the area of family enterprises. She specializes in owner development, board development, and women in ownership groups.
For over 20 years she has supported enterprising families strategically planning their legacy and developing their organizational and individual capabilities to achieve their shared long- term goals, often in periods of transition.
Neus advises owners and their governance forums and/or representatives (owner’s councils, holding boards, trustees and assemblies) in overcoming the challenges and navigating through key decisions that arise from the complexities involved in generational continuity along with the governance and management of their enterprises, and social impact and/or philanthropic projects.
Her training and experience have always integrated business and economics with psychology and family dynamics. She combines the worlds of consulting and coaching, accompanying enterprising families and their leaders in processes of change and transformation. She develops personalized strategies for building effective governance teams, developing the owning family capital (current and next generation) and constructively managing the impact of family relationships on the continuity of family organizations. Much of her work is with large Latin American and European family business groups.
Neus earned her PhD at ESADE Business School (Barcelona, Spain) with a specialization in philanthropy in family businesses from a governance perspective. She has authored articles in journals such as the Family Business Review, European Journal of Family Business, and FFI Practitioner. She has published several chapters in books on the topics of governance, philanthropy, generational perspectives, family business citizenship, family conglomerates and the role of women owners in family enterprises. Her research has been recognized with The Family Enterprise USA Doctoral Award (2010), the FOBI Award (2015), and the IFERA Best Conceptual Paper Award (2020).
She was recently recognized with the 2023 Richard Beckhard Practice Award which recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of multi-generational family enterprise practice.
Complementing her advising and research work, Neus serves on several boards and lectures on family enterprise governance, responsible ownership, leadership, and the current state of philanthropy. She collaborates with ESADE Business School (Barcelona) on their executive programs, and with the Tecnológico de Monterrey (México) as an International Visiting Professor. She is also actively involved with several academic and professional organizations dedicated to Family Enterprises, such as FERC and IFERA where she aims to contribute to building bridges between academics and practitioners, as well as with the Family Firm Institute (US), where she is a Fellow and faculty member of the FFI GEN Certificates in Family Business and Family Wealth Advising.
Neus and her husband live in Barcelona. Their twin children are currently attending university and so starting life as young adults. She enjoys mountaineering, from which she has learned many skills that apply to her work, and loves art in all its forms, especially fine art but also, literature, music and the theatre; activities that she is fortunate to share with her family.
