Conference on family firms a Major event

FORMER British Prime Minister John Major will be the keynote speaker at a conference on sustaining Irish family businesses in Cork next month.

Mr Major is expected to focus on the need for family businesses to anticipate and manage change.

The Irish Family Business Conference 2005 will be chaired by Alan Crosbie, at University College Cork’s John C Kelleher Family Business Centre.

Mr Crosbie is the fifth generation of the Crosbie family to manage Thomas Crosbie Holdings, owners of the Irish Examiner. Other high-profile speakers include Patrick Campbell, the executive chairman of the Campbell Bewley Group and Gerry McCaughey, chief executive Century Homes

The conference, on April 15, is aimed at those working in family businesses, both family and non-family members, and at advisors to family businesses.

It is the first public event organised by UCC’s Family Business Initiative.