Consulting for Business Families

Ing. Martin Jurek, Ph.D., MIM is a family advisor specializing in business succession. He is the academic director of the Centre for Family Business Prague University of Economics and Business and comes from a family-run gastronomy business himself. At CRF, he teaches executive courses for family firms and provides individual advisory services to entrepreneurial families.

In 2021, he founded the VŠE Family Business Club at the Prague University of Economics and Business — a club for successors in family businesses among VŠE students and alumni.

He also works as an assistant professor at the Department of Strategy at the Faculty of Business Administration, VŠE. Thanks to his experience moderating IFFD courses (International Federation for Family Development, which holds general consultative status with the UN Economic and Social Council), he is skilled at creating a safe space for open dialogue among family members and helping them find solutions in the process of generational transition of a family business and assets.

He specializes in:

• facilitating dialogue on values, communication, and decision-making within the family,
• succession processes,
• financial strategy of family firms.

He grew up in a family business environment and, as a second-generation member, is part of an entrepreneurial family that, among other things, brews Harrach beer and shares a passion for freshwater fish. He firmly believes that although family businesses operate in many different industries, they have one thing in common — a business that is inseparably linked with family relationships. This is why he is able to sense and open topics that entrepreneurial families often postpone.

In every advisory case, he seeks to understand the context, listens to individual family members, and guides the family — using CRF’s proven methods — toward the solution that makes the most sense.

Prof. Ing. Jiří Hnilica, Ph.D. is an expert in the strategy and management of family businesses. In 2016, he founded the Centre for Family Business at Prague University of Economics and Business. He currently serves as the head of CRF, where he teaches executive courses for family firms, provides individual advisory services, and develops cooperation with major Czech family businesses within the CRF Strategic Council. As a member of the international Family Firm Institute, he is a family business advisor holding the international Advanced Certificate in Family Business Advising. Since 2022, he has been the Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at VŠE.

He specializes in:

• strategic management of family businesses,
• family wealth governance and ownership models,
• facilitating intergenerational agreements and creating family constitutions,
• systematic coaching of individuals and family teams.

He believes that successful family entrepreneurship is built on shared values, open communication, and respect between generations — not only on correct executive decisions.

At the Family Business Center, he guides entrepreneurial families through the process of finding answers to three key questions:

• “Why do we want to do business as a family?”
• “What do we want to achieve?”
• “How are we going to get there?”

He then helps families turn these answers into concrete actions that support both the long-term business success of the family and its cohesion and prosperity. He will gladly help your family find a path to entrepreneurship that unites — not divides.