Rupert Merson

Rupert Merson is a leading authority on owner-managed, entrepreneurial and family businesses and the problems they confront as they seek to grow. He has worked as a consultant and facilitator for clients on a broad range of issues including formation, governance, strategy, ownership, remuneration, succession, turnaround and organisation development.

As an advisor, Rupert was a partner in BDO Stoy Hayward in London from 1993 to 2009. He now leads his own firm of advisers. He has completed assignments for businesses in the UK, US, South East Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East and worked extensively with entrepreneurs, family businesses and professional partnerships. Rupert Merson is also an experienced non-executive director and board chairman.

As Adjunct Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, Rupert currently teaches a range of MBA electives on owner management, entrepreneurship, family business and corporate turnaround, and frequently teaches on executive education programmes on strategy and organisational development. Rupert was awarded the Best Teacher Award by the MBA class of 2015 at LBS. In the same year he was also awarded the prize for the best elective at INSEAD. In 2018 Rupert was awarded the Best Teacher Award by the MBA class for a second time.

Rupert has published a series of books on key management roles in the growing business, has co-authored a book on family businesses and writes frequently in the national press on related topics. His most recent book, Growing a Business: Strategies for Leaders and Entrepreneurs, was published by The Economist in 2015. He has spoken at conferences in Europe, America and Australasia.
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales, the Royal Society for the Encouragements of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. A first-class honours graduate and university prize-winner from Oxford University, he also holds a certificate in general management from Harvard Business School. In his spare time Rupert is a musician, conducting a choir and playing the organ, piano and harpsichord.