Forbes Middle East will hold the first edition of its Family Business Summit in Abu Dhabi on 28 and 29 October 2026. The two day gathering is presented by First Abu Dhabi Bank and is aimed at the owners, chairs, board members and next generation leaders of the region's family owned groups. The organiser has not yet named the venue.
Family businesses account for a large share of private sector activity in the Gulf, and many of the largest are now working through succession, governance and listing decisions at the same time. The summit programme is built around those themes: family governance and constitutions, the transition from founder to second and third generation leadership, the role of independent directors, and the choices between keeping capital private, bringing in partners or going to the public markets.
For executives the event matters because family groups remain the largest employers and investors outside government in most Gulf economies. Chief executives and chief financial officers hired into family owned companies face governance questions that differ from those in listed or state owned entities, and this summit is one of the few regional forums built specifically around them.
Forbes Middle East runs a series of sector summits across the region, including healthcare, sustainability and medical tourism editions, and the Family Business Summit joins that calendar as a new title. Programme details, speakers and registration are published on the Forbes Middle East events site.
