This is an extract from the Ideal Family Office Leader white paper. For the full report, please use the download form on this page.

Marta Albert is a Principal at Terra Oceanis Foundation, a third-generation Single Family Office in London. She manages the family investments and co-leads QG Family Office with husband Fernando while also sitting within several large investment advisory committees. Marta leads the Family Office having successfully managed multinational corporations and private investment firms which, under her leadership, became role models for excellence and profitability. Her success comes from her ability to combine passion, experience, common sense and a love for people. She uses her corporate experience and compassion today to take on the role of Family Office Leader, a role she shares with two others and speaks to Agreus to discuss why Emotional Intelligence is paramount to achieving excellence.

QUALITIES

The Ideal Family Office Leader is honourable and honest, knowledgeable and experienced, reliable and emotionally intelligent enough to lead himself and others in an effective way.

People have been the cornerstone of our Family Office from the very beginning and it is a value I inherited from my Father-in-law. He used to tell me that people are the single most important thing in life. Money comes and goes; you can have everything today and nothing tomorrow but if there is only one thing that is real and that stays with you in this life it is people and the relationships that we have with them. He taught this to his sons and when I came into the picture, he taught me the same.

Caring about people is in our very DNA and it is crucial to us that anyone we work with, in any capacity – Leadership or otherwise, not only understands this but values it the same way that we do. Our values are all that really matters and the same rule applies when hiring Leaders for our Family Office.

COMPETENCIES

I do not care if a person has years of experience at a financial services company or whether they have five degrees under their belt. Sometimes the corporate experience that many look for in a hire can actually come as a deterrent to us as these professionals are accustomed to such large and impersonal organisations, with the ingrained and learned behaviour to match, that while all of the above can make them exceptional in their subject matter, from a cultural perspective it can make them a poor fit. If a person is honest and knowledgeable, strong, capable and compassionate then they are right for our Family Office regardless of their corporate experience. In fact, our next Family Office Leader could well be a Concierge. My husband and I were staying at a hotel once and started talking to the Concierge. We got to know him so well during our stay that Fernando said one day, when the time is right, we are going to hire you. He responded of course, startled, explaining that he hadn’t thought about a career neither had he attended university but Fernando was clear, it categorically did not matter as you either have what it takes or you do not and this young man certainly did. His personal, people and organisational skills were impeccable and one day, when the time is right, he will make an exceptional addition to the team.

SKILLSET

IQ vs EQ is a fascinating subject. There is no one or the other, we need a combination and a balance of both. If someone is knowledgeable and experienced but has low EQ, he or she will never be a good Leader, especially not a Family Office Leader. Managing our own emotions and being capable of managing other’s is of the upmost importance for us when looking for a candidate. However, there are certain competencies that need to be demonstrable within a Family Office Leader. They need to understand investments, finance and people. They need to be comfortable in leading and not acting as a Leader but genuinely leading, teaching and nurturing. They also need to command respect and rather than being feared, they need to be admired tremendously for their knowledge and skills. Charisma and Leadership skills are everything.

It is incredibly difficult in the Family Office community to unify or generalise and as the renowned saying goes, ‘once you have seen one Family Office, you have seen one Family Office’. There is truth in our differences but there are certainly skills that are necessary in every Family Office Leader and this does not necessarily require experience in certain environments but knowledge and a desire to learn.

FLAT STRUCTURE

We used to have a person in the position of Head of Family Office and when she left we took a deep breath and thought about what we needed next. After much deliberation we decided to revisit our strategy and opted instead to create a flat structure without a person in that ‘top spot’. We love it. It is far more reflective of our personalities as Principals and not so hierarchical. We are very hands-on people and like to be involved, not taking the form of a Family Office where the Leaders are in one corner and the employees are in another, we are a collective and like to work in the same fashion.

We are perhaps a rarity, especially when thinking of our friends who also have Family Offices. We do everything in-house from the investments to the reporting. We make every decision and it has to be unanimous, the Principals have to agree. In other, more hierarchical structures a Chief Investment Officer may make all of the investment decisions but that isn’t how it works with us

Autonomous Family Office Leaders may be the best course of action for a Family Office whose Principal has a holistic overview of investments, accounting and people but requires more in-depth knowledge and experience in order to excel in either of the above. For us, we enjoy being hands-on and involved, between the two of us we have the subject matter expertise necessary to excel and it works.

Having a flat structure does not mean that you do everything yourself, however. We like to surround ourselves by good advisors, intelligent people with a broad range of knowledge in different areas and we evolve as Leaders with their help. You may not require exclusive in-house expertise but you can always benefit from advice and should never be afraid to take it.

TWO PRINCIPALS, ONE IDEAL LEADER

I share the title of Principal with my husband Fernando who is a true Leader. Not only is he a tremendously emotional intelligent person but he is honourable and a true gentleman. He is the type of person who you can trust with your life and not only because he is an amazing Leader but a wonderful person which is what every Leader must begin with. Something he is particularly great at is strategy. It is the bedrock of everything and thanks to him, we have a robust strategy that has brought us great success and led us to where we are today.

I on the other hand am more the front-of-office who loves speaking, meeting new people and interacting with our employees, friends and clients. I am what you could call an Emotional Intelligence Specialist, I am hands-on and love what I do but I am no strategist. It is not my thing nor a subject matter I enjoy which plays nicely to the strengths of my husband. He is an Investor, a Trader and analyses everything we do. He takes care of the strategy of the Family Office brilliantly while I take care of our people, both inside and outside of the Family Office.

We compensate each other well and our two incredibly different types of Leadership work together harmoniously to create the Ideal Family Office Leader. While for some this position is best filled by an external professional, expert in investments, finance and people, for us, we believe there is no-one better to lead our Family Office than our family and it’s a job we think we do well.

Ultimately, you have to do what is right for you and your Family Office and when it does come to hiring – skill-set and even competency aside, you need to ensure you can trust this person unconditionally. They need to uphold your values and not only continue the legacy of your Family Office but lead with absolute discretion.

In order to find the right person, you need to have many conversations and not just in an office setting either. Sitting in a café and having a coffee or going for dinner and sharing a bottle of wine. You need to know this person incredibly well because intelligence can be proven but personality, discretion, privacy, confidentially and especially charisma, cannot.

For access to all of our statistics and interviews around the topic of The Ideal Family Office Leader, download the full report.