28/07/2025
Interview with Baron David de Rothschild, Chairman of the Rothschild Group Your ancestor, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, expanded and internationalised his business through sending his sons abroad. Nowadays how do you regulate succession to ensure the continuation of excellence in your remarkable legacy? There are three aspects to succession. Firstly, it is common knowledge, that at one time, women were barred from coming into the business. In my opinion, if we had an objective measure of the intellectual capacity of the Rothschild family members from our origins to today, we would find there was as much talent or possibly more with the Rothschild women as with the men. The only explanation that I have for the barring of women in the first three generations is that by definition a woman may get married to someone outside the family. If the new husband wants to come into the business you can involve him in it, but over time, Rothschild would be diluted. I think this was behind that decision. Now was it a good one or not I do not know. Today, this has of course completely disappeared. The candidates for succession in the Rothschild family are by definition male and female. And I think this is truly empowering. The second point is that no one in our family is forced to join the business. I am blessed by the fact that my son, who is 29 years old, Alexander, has joined the firm recently. He first wanted to find out what finance was. He worked five years externally and only then said that he would like to join. I spoke to him and explained the responsibilities, but I also said again, that if he felt suddenly that he had another vocation that should by all means follow it. The third element is that you cannot have a 250-year history without competent people. Just because he or she is of the family does not guarantee a position at the top. I would much rather see the family stay as the main shareholder with the chairman being a non-family member than lose our reputation for excellence. This is the fundamental interest of our business. Therefore, I am constantly concerned with surrounding myself with the smartest and the best performing partners I can find. Family members want to be the boss, which is normal, however, it is imperative to have good people throughout the organisation so we welcome people from outside our family. Senior management that chooses to work in a family.
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