OREANDA-NEWS. October 12, 2015. Sberbank Private Banking and the SKOLKOVO Business School have held the Successors Academy summer programme. It was the first educational programme in Russia for the young generation of entrepreneurial families. Lasting 17 days, it took place in summer 2015 in four countries: Russia, the UK, Switzerland, and China (Hong Kong).

Sberbank Private Banking and the SKOLKOVO Business School jointly took the initiative to create a new educational product for Russian entrepreneurial families. The result of this partnership project was the Successors Academy, which was attended by 12 young men and women from 18 to 24 years old, who represented the second generation of the families of capital owners.

The educational programme was created for Russian entrepreneurial families using the experience of the world’s leading business schools and financial institutions. More than 60 teachers and practitioners of the wealth management industry spoke to the participants. The key subjects of the programme were macro trends and their possible impact on capital and its owners, the typology of wealth and ownership tools, management and successions, general theory of management, as well as getting acquainted with financial managers, banks, foundations, family offices, trust managers, and other service providers.

“Eighteen months ago, we set a goal—to explore the global wealth management experience and to propose specific tools for the Russian market. The Successors Academy educational programme is one of our first solutions in this area. I believe that it is important today to form social solidarity among the second generation of Russian wealth owners, including by creating the conditions for intra-family dialogue about succession. Such dialogue will help balance many processes related to family business, which ultimately should benefit the Russian private sector as a whole,” said Ruben Vardanyan, founding partner, Vice-Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the SKOLKOVO Business School.

“Russian entrepreneurial families will need to undergo the process of passing wealth to their successors for the first time. It is believed that in the second generation two-thirds of families lose their fortune, and in the third generation only one family out of ten keeps its fortune. In order to protect the family capital and enhance it in the future, the succession process requires the young generation to be aware of their responsibility and professional training. Therefore, our joint educational programme with SKOLKOVO should contribute to the preservation and development of Russian private wealth. I am very pleased that thanks to the Successors Academy, our customers’ children are able to get acquainted with Sberbank, a reliable partner of their parents on the difficult path of business development and formation of family capital,” said Alexander Torbakhov, member of the Board, Deputy Chairman of the Executive Board of Sberbank, summing up the programme.

One of the fundamental elements of the programme was the participants’ dialogue with entrepreneurial and philanthropic families from Russia, Switzerland, the UK, and Hong Kong, who may provide guidelines and serve as role models for personal career development. Sberbank Private Banking is ready to continue the tradition of partnership programmes with the SKOLKOVO Business School, and the second training programme for the representatives of the second generation of the families of capital owners is planned for summer 2016.