François M. de Visscher is a pioneer in the field of financial advice to family companies. A native of Belgium, Mr. de Visscher has been an active advisor to business owning families for over twenty years, mostly in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. In 1990, he founded de Visscher & Co., one of the nation's leading independent financial consulting and investment banking firms for family and closely-held companies and prior to opening his own firm he was a partner at Smith Barney, where he founded and ran the Family Business Group. Grasping the needs of family businesses for growth and liquidity capital, in 1998, Mr. de Visscher co-founded "Family Capital Growth Partners", a private equity fund focused on making minority and majority equity investments in family-owned and closely held companies.

As a strong contributor to the field of family business, Mr. de Visscher is a past president of the Family Firm Institute, current Chairman of the European Family Office Conference, and a contributor to many publications, including The Wall Street Journal, LA Times, NY Times and many others. He is currently a full-time contributing editor of Family Business Magazine.

Mr. de Visscher is a family director and fourth generation shareholder of his own family's global enterprise, N.V. Bekaert S.A. Headquartered in Belgium, Bekaert was founded by his great grandfather in 1880. Today, the Bekaert Group has sales of $3.0 Billion in over 120 countries manufacturing and marketing a wide variety of steel wire and related products. Mr. de Visscher is also a director of the family's Holding Company, Bekaert A.K. and the United States subsidiary of the Group, Bekaert North America. Mr. de Visscher is a director of Epic Brands in the United Kingdom. Mr. de Visscher is also a Certified Public Accountant and a member of the American Institution of CPA's. Mr. de Visscher holds a Bachelor of Economics honors degree from Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and MBA from Rutgers University.

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