Multigenerational Leadership for Sustainability
Equipping families to drive resilient, impactful leadership for the future.
In an era of accelerating change, families who steward wealth, business, and influence have a unique opportunity—and responsibility—to respond to the interconnected challenges shaping our future.
Climate disruption, geopolitical shifts, social inequality, and rapid technological transformation are redefining the operating context for business and society alike.
The Multigenerational Leadership for Sustainability programme delivered by the world-renowned University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability empowers families to engage deeply with the forces shaping our world and how these interrelate with internal family dynamics. Participants leave equipped and confident to lead with integrity, resilience, and impact.
This is a programme designed for families seeking to evolve their legacy in a time of profound transformation.
Who is this for?
Through this programme we engage the most impact-focused families internationally to build a leading forum for change which benefits from wide diversity of perspective and experience.
The programme is designed for family members who are responsible for shaping family purpose, values and priorities, for driving value creation or for stewarding assets. The key criteria for participation are focused on the potential of those attending to contribute – to the programme and to our world.
In addition, all participants must:
- Hold an undergraduate degree (or equivalent)
- Be proficient in English
- Be available to complete all key dimensions of the programme and contribute to peer-to-peer sessions.
Note: The programme is not designed for multi-family offices, advisors or bankers (CISL is exploring complementary learning and networking opportunities for influential stakeholders from the wider private wealth ecosystem). However, there will be a very limited number of single-family office representatives who hold senior roles with the families they serve and can accompany family members on the Multi-Generational Leadership journey.
Format and logistics
What makes this programme unique?
- Immersive, multi-perspective learning: Engage with peers, leading academics, and global thought leaders to unpack sustainability challenges shaping families and communities worldwide.
- A dual focus on internal family dynamics and how these interrelate with the external context: Explore internal family dynamics while envisioning what a thriving, generative family could look like in a just, sustainable future, guided by proven frameworks.
- Confidential peer-to-peer exchange: Build trusted connections and share insights in a safe environment, supported by expert Faculty and guest contributors.
- Next-generation leadership and stewardship: Develop innovative approaches to succession, governance, and leadership that draw on the strengths and ambitions of every generation.
A structured approach to enable the exploration and development of new models of succession, stewardship and leadership around the strengths and ambitions of different generations.
Cost: £13,695 per person
*This includes attendance at all programme sessions, including the welcome orientation meeting and throughout the residential seminar, access to all programme materials , faculty support, all meals including gala dinners, tailored site visits, and transport.
Please note, accommodation is not included in the price but can be reserved upon request at the conference venue.
Join a global cohort of like-minded families in a safe, neutral environment to learn, reflect, and chart a path forward—one that is rooted in responsibility and rich in possibility.
The need for transformative family leadership:
Family businesses and private investment are powerful forces in the global economy. Across all regions, purpose-driven families have helped drive innovation and improve the quality of life for millions.
However, global growth has come at a spiralling cost to communities, nature and climate, stoking drivers of division and conflict. Unsustainable practices trigger converging risks for people and planet. They generate tensions within families and within the communities and societies they are a part of, undermining opportunities for long-term value creation and balanced ways of living and working.
CISL supports families to clarify their purpose in an age of disruption, explore novel approaches to stewardship and governance and lead transformational change across generations.
"The more progressive families are consciously investing in themselves – building their capacity to lead change, but also learning how to unlearn, how to let go of their prevailing worldview or legacy behaviours, accepting the need sometimes to challenge the status quo, and taking stock of their values, their purpose and the contribution that they make to society through a fresh look at the notion of stewardship."
What you'll gain
- Access to world class insights: Learn from leading global Faculty to understand the challenges facing society and the impacts of these challenges on future prosperity.
- Build long-term solutions: Use this understanding to build strategies that deliver a more resilient, equitable future for generations to come.
- Space for challenge: A safe and confidential space to engage in open dialogue around sensitive topics and debate challenging and sensitive issues, such as the future of wealth in a context of growing inequality and new paradigms of power.
- Lifelong peer community: Join a trusted international network of families committed to purposeful leadership, and explore opportunities for collaboration on long-term impact initiatives.
- Ongoing support: Tailored support from the University of Cambridge, durign the programme and beyond, helping you to explore your unique context and develop commercially viable strategies aligned with family values.
“Families must in parallel address internal issues which can become greater derailers than the challenges of the external environment. Families must ensure that they themselves are sustainable. Family continuity can be undermined without adequate preparation for succession.”
Areas of focus
Through our deep expertise in sustainable leadership, finance, and systems thinking, the programme positions private wealth within the broader global context and supports impact focused families across the following areas:
- Global Influence with Purpose: Families often operate with the longest planning horizon in the economy—making decisions today that will shape outcomes well beyond 2050. This programme enables participants to harness that long-term perspective to drive meaningful change across generations and geographies.
- Integrated Routes to Impact: Unlike other economic actors, families have multiple, integrated routes to influence, the programme supports those looking to invest with purpose to transform economies and reward innovation.
- Responding to Complex Pressures: Externally, families must navigate converging risks—climate disruption, inequality, and geopolitical shifts—while internally, they face the challenge of engaging diverse generational voices and priorities. This programme helps families rethink the nature of value, how it is created, and for whom.
- Regenerative Leadership Across Generations: Family wealth can be a source of division or a platform for collective impact. The programme supports families in embracing regenerative leadership that integrates the strengths and ambitions of both wealth creators and inheritors to ensure long-term success and fulfilment.
- Clarifying Purpose in an Age of Disruption: The programme draws on deep expertise in sustainable leadership, finance, and systems thinking. It positions private wealth within a broader global context and unlocks new pathways for impact-led families to shape the future we need.
In a time of profound global transformation, families who steward wealth, business, and influence are uniquely positioned to lead. The Multigenerational Leadership for Sustainability Programme offers a rare opportunity to reflect, realign, and reimagine the role of family leadership in shaping a resilient and equitable future.
Why join a CISL programme?
The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) supports families to clarify their purpose in an age of disruption and lead transformational change across generations.
Through our deep expertise in sustainable leadership, finance, and systems thinking, the programme positions private wealth within the broader global context and unlock a new platform for impact-led families to shape the future we need.
"There is so much families can learn from each other and so much more wealth and business owning families can contribute to dialogue on all aspects of sustainability. CISL provides an academic voice and a safe environment to explore topics critical to families and to their communities and world. Our work on exploring how a circular economy mindset can impact governance and decision-making is exciting and is helping families to navigate an increasingly troubled world where risks to wealth and business owners abound.”
Who delivers this programme?
The programme is delivered by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) alongside our international network of Senior Associates, Fellows and guest contributors. For over 30 years, CISL has worked at the heart of the University of Cambridge to deliver leadership and education programmes for some of the most influential individuals and organisations worldwide. We combine academic excellence, industry expertise and influential thinking to ensure the content is suitable, diverse and stretches thinking, shapes behaviours and informs practice.
Co-Founding advisors
The programme has been informed and supported by an International Advisory Group who have drawn on their wealth of experience to inform the programme design and outcomes and is supported by our Co-Founding advisors and expert contributors Philip Marcovici and Iraj Ispahani.
Apply here
Applications are open now for the residential programme starting in May 2026 in Cambridge.