PETER MAY Board Services offers a comprehensive range of services for the establishment and realignment of advisory and supervisory bodies. We advise entrepreneurs on the conception of setting up an advisory board or realigning their existing board. For newly established or existing committees, we find suitable personalities depending on the objective of the advisory board and the specific requirements for its members. The lawyers in our partner network take care of the corresponding legal issues. In addition we offer customised training programmes to qualify advisory board members for their work. Regular topical publications on advisory board issues round off our offer.

We advise in advisory board set-ups or restructurings

Using a structured advisory approach that has been tried and tested over many years, we help entrepreneurs to form the board that is right for them - depending on the current constellation and objectives for the family business, the present and planned distribution of roles among family members and managers, and the respective corporate situation.

• Do we need an advisory board at all? What are its goals and what should the set-up be? We explore the advantages and disadvantages of alternative advisory board models.
• What is the set-up? What rights and duties should it have? We jointly develop the architecture of the board, we define rights and duties, and its composition.
• What kind of people and qualifications do we need on the board? We jointly develop the ideal competence matrix.

With more than 20 years of experience in advising entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial families, we know about the specifics of each constellation and deal with them accordingly, prudently and carefully.

Support in the legal implementation of your advisory board
A good advisory board must be properly set up and legally implemented. The lawyers in our partner network will assist you in drawing up all the necessary contracts. These are in particular

• Advisory board statutes
• Agency agreements
• Rules of procedure for the advisory board
• Revision of the articles of association

Finding suitable personalities for your advisory board

Every advisory board is only as good as its members. Members who stand by the owners and managing directors of the family business at eye level as sparring partners, as strategic companions and advisors. Who put their finger on the difficult questions, critically question new ideas and contribute their own ideas. In many cases, however, they must also be in a position to control the business as supervisory board members in the interests of the owners. And they have to know how family businesses work - because family businesses are known to be prone to overlapping roles and the associated conflicts, which the advisory board has to help balance out.

Friends and acquaintances, in-house lawyers, bankers and tax consultants should not act as advisory board members - this understanding has become established. Rather, external personalities are required who can give advice without conflicts of interest.

On the basis of our extensive advisory board network, which has grown over the years in the environment of successful family businesses, we can find the right members for you. Entrepreneurs and managing directors whose CVs and success stories we know and whose willingness to take on an advisory board task we already know. We bring you together in the shortest possible way!

Our personally cultivated advisory board network includes:

• Numerous entrepreneurs and non-family directors of all company sizes

• Experienced personalities with management responsibility in medium-sized and large family businesses

• Managers with mixed experience in family businesses and large corporations

• Broad spectrum of industries

• All disciplines (financial experts, technicians, natural scientists, etc.)

• Also young experts in digitalisation, start-ups, e-commerce and tech innovations.

Training for (prospective) advisory board members, supervisory board members and administrative board members

Professional and value-creating advisory board work requires personal maturity, experience in managing family businesses and technical knowledge. In our courses, prospective advisory and supervisory board members learn how to assess and support corporate strategy and corporate financing from the perspective of the advisory board, analyse balance sheets and evaluate key figures, as well as practical information on liability and compliance.

Our special programme for advisory boards, supervisory boards and boards of directors

Most medium-sized and large family businesses today have an advisory board. And the professionalism of the boards is increasing, as our studies show. But advisory boards are only as good as their members. They only bring added value when suitable personalities come together on the board, when they complement each other in their personal qualities and professional skills, and when they are passionately committed.

Our special courses provide you with the know-how you need as an advisory board member beyond your professional qualifications. Above all, they help you to view strategy and corporate management from the perspective of a sparring partner and companion, to professionally scrutinise financing, balance sheets and key figures, and to know your rights and duties as an advisory board member as well as the liability risks.

The participants in our courses are:

• Entrepreneurs who want to change from a management to an advisory board role, who need to change their perspective and who want to acquire the tools they need for strategy support and control.

• Shareholders who want to prepare for an advisory board role and learn the tools for good advisory board work.

• Managers and executives who would like to take on an advisory board role in a family business and familiarise themselves with the characteristics and specifics of family businesses.

Dr. Dominik von Au

Dominik von Au is considered one of the leading experts on family businesses and the “top advisor to the succession generation in our country” (Manager Magazin 10/20). For more than fifteen years, he has assisted entrepreneurial families in drafting family constitutions and succession paths, among other things, as well as in advising on strategic issues from the shareholder perspective. In addition, he often ensures implementation as an active member of the advisory board in family businesses and family offices and is a sought-after sparring partner for the “NextGen” of family entrepreneurs.

Gerold Rieder

Gerold Rieder has been working with and for family entrepreneurs for over 20 years. As co-founder and managing director of the INTES Academy for Family Businesses, he has built up the most successful platform for training, education and networking for entrepreneurial families in Germany. His passion lies in supporting entrepreneurial families in filling their advisory and supervisory boards, for which he can draw on his qualified, personally shaped advisory board network. He has been Managing Director of PETER MAY Board Services since January 2022.

Sabine Strick

Sabine Strick supports family businesses in the conception, establishment and staffing of their advisory boards, supervisory boards or boards of directors. In addition, she designs workshops and training formats for entrepreneurs, shareholders, NextGens and advisory board members. She contributes her experience from over 15 years of journalistic and conceptual work with entrepreneurial families and family businesses.