Family-office capital is increasingly direct, but rarely alone: over two-thirds of deals are now club deals or co-investments (PwC/Citi 2025), because the family invests on its own but lacks the internal structure to originate and govern the deal. The critical point, after closing, is not the financial model: it is governance.
Where value is lost
In direct industrial deals, value erodes on four recurring fronts: undefined decision rights between sponsor and management; decision fragmentation across jurisdictions; ownership-management tensions; reporting not fit for institutional scrutiny. These are alignment problems, not operational ones.
The architecture that protects capital
Well-designed governance defines who decides what (reserved to the investor vs delegated), establishes a board and committees with real powers, structures controls and investor-grade reporting, and keeps capital, board and management aligned on one strategy. It does not slow things down — it accelerates, by removing ambiguity.
How I work. I support the family office as a single counterpart: I design the governance architecture of the direct deal or co-investment, sit on (or structure) the board, and oversee execution — aligned with the interests of those who deploy the capital.