Grant Walsh

Grant Walsh

Grant Walsh is co-founder of the KPMG Centre for Family Business. For the past ten years, his professional services have been dedicated solely to assisting family businesses in working through their management and ownership issues with a focus on the transition/succession process.

A selection of specific areas of experience includes:

  • Assessing the ‘readiness’ of family businesses for the transition/succession process
  • Helping families prepare for and navigate through the transition/succession process
  • Providing options for both management and ownership succession within family businesses
  • Facilitating family meetings (active family members) and Family Councils (broader family)
  • Developing family business ‘Codes of Conduct’ or ‘Family Rules’ to help prevent potential conflict among family members
  • Assisting in the development of effective shareholder agreements that meet the needs of both the family business and the family (i.e., decision making, exit strategies, distribution policies, executive compensation)
  • Coaching individual family members as the family business evolves
  • Analyzing current trends in family business.

Grant is an active member of CAFE (Canadian Association of Family Enterprise) and serves on the Board of the CAFE Ottawa chapter. He frequently writes articles on family business and recently authored a book on behalf of Agriculture Canada entitled “Managing the Multi-Generational Family Farm”. He is often called upon to make presentations and provide advice to local business groups and the local media on family business issues.

Grant is also a member of the Family Firm Institute (FFI), an international association of family business professionals providing in depth information on family businesses from around the world as well as ongoing education and training in the field of family business consulting.

Grant’s career background includes; corporate finance, sales and marketing within a large multinational pharmaceutical company; public administration in a large teaching hospital; owner/manager of a local residential construction firm and associate professor of graduate studies (Finance and Strategic Planning) at the University of Ottawa.

WORKSHOP PRESENTATION

Time to Get Out: Exit Strategies For Business Owners

A panel discussion moderated by Grant Walsh: the three panelists are Jan Kaminski of Colannade Investments who will represent the views of a third-party purchaser; Kelly Youngdale of Label Innovation Inc. who will represent the views of an inter-generational transfer within a family business; and Prashant Patel of RBC Wealth Management Services who will represent the broad spectrum of financing, wealth management and exit strategies from a bankers perspective.