Roxanne Cariou’s early career was in communications at Editis Publishing Group, where she promoted educational and cultural publications.

 

In 2012, she moved to the prestigious EDHEC Business School, working in the Executive Education Department to help set up its Family Business Centre: a research and training hub. She was responsible for putting together a comprehensive program of training and presentations for family shareholders (conferences, short programs, networking events) and for coordinating the center’s research activities.

 

In this role, Roxanne worked hand-in-hand with family shareholders (primarily from SMEs or larger companies), defining their everyday and long-term issues and taking the time to understand the unique challenges they face, then seeking out the specialist advice they need, expertly bringing together the right people to deliver the right solution.

 

She also helped set up and run the “24 Hours for Next Generation” seminar” for its first seven years. She did so at first as part of her role at EDHEC (an initial partner of the event) and carried on with her next employer, the Family Business Network (the leading network of business families in France and worldwide). Her more recent involvement has been as an external consultant. She spent four years at the Family Business Network, from 2015 to 2019, working on internal and external communications, handling member relations and coordinating the network’s 100 events each year in France and throughout Europe.

 

She then became Head of Marketing, Communications and Values for a European family-owned group based in Luxembourg. The group was in the throes of its transmission to the second generation and was struggling to reconcile the various family members to a shared vision for the business and for how the transmission should unfold. Roxanne identified the root issue as being a lack of formal governance and set about addressing this and getting everyone on the same page to ensure the business could continue to thrive.

 

She has since set up her own independent firm, CARIOU & Co, drawing on her wealth of experience with managers of family-owned businesses and the network of experts built up over the years to assist business families in the key process of handing over the reins to the next generation. In 2021, she was awarded her Non-Executive Directorship Certificate, allowing her to work on succession planning as part of a Board.