Elizabeth Bagger to step down as IFB Director General

The Board of the Institute for Family Business announces that Director General Elizabeth Bagger will be leaving the organisation. Recruitment of her successor is under way with more information to follow on this.

Sir James Wates CBE, Chairman of the IFB, said:

On behalf of the IFB board, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation for Elizabeth’s service to the organisation over the past twelve years. She has served the IFB and indeed the broader family business sector with great passion, intelligence and commitment, and we wish her the best in the next stage of her career.

The board’s nominations committee has initiated steps to recruit a successor. The role of Chief Executive will be posted on the IFB website in due course. For any information please contact: Marita Solli Mahon, Operations Manager – Chairman’s Office at Wates Group email: Marita.Mahon@wates.co.uk

Elizabeth Bagger said to IFB members:

It has been my honour and privilege to be your Director General for the past five years and to have been part of this fantastic organisation since 2009.

I started my career working for my own family business. When I left the company, I pursued new opportunities in the field of corporate governance. A few years later, I was fortunate enough to meet the IFB. Returning to the world of family business gave me back a profound sense of purpose I wasn't aware was missing until I found it again.

Covid-19 has been an extremely difficult time for most people and businesses in one way or another. It has also been a time when we have experienced the importance of community and seeking support. I am both delighted and grateful so many of you participated so actively in our activities.

The pandemic has also made many of us think about the future. For some, this meant starting to make plans to retire and hand over businesses to the next generation. For some, it meant pursuing new or different careers, and much else.

And so, it has become time for me to extend my warmest thank you to every single one of you for your support, your engagement and for everything you do as it is also time for me to start to look to my new future.

I will not leave the field of family business; I will simply be making a shift to working with individual family businesses as an adviser and non-executive director. 

I look back at my five years as your Director General with great fondness. In this time, the IFB has grown in reach and impact with Government and a wide range of partner organisations. We have sharpened our events programme and we connect more members with each other than ever before. It has been an amazing journey working with incredible people - the IFB team, our Board members, Committees, Regional Chairs and all of you, our incredible members.

I'm proud and grateful to have been part of an organisation with such a noble purpose – to support the amazing work of family business in this country.

I will be stepping down from my role on 1 September, but I will not be leaving just yet. I will be working with the IFB until our AGM on 24 November, when I hope to have the chance to say goodbye and thank you to many of you. 

I have no doubt the IFB will go from strength to strength. We have amazing people in every role, and I look forward to following the work and evolution of an organisation I have the highest regard for. I hope to engage with as many of you as possible before I leave, and if there is anything  the team can do to improve your membership experience, please don't hesitate to get in touch.