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    About the Center

    The Center’s history since its founding, its milestones, and its strategy for the continuity of family businesses in the Kingdom.

    How it began

    From an idea to protect family businesses to an independent national reference

    Family businesses are the backbone of the Kingdom's private sector: 95% of its businesses are family-owned and they employ 48% of the workforce. That is where the idea began in 2005: a body to protect these businesses and help them last and pass between generations. The start was not completed, and the project paused in the face of challenges, chief among them the lack of a home.

    The idea returned in 2012, when a royal order reopened the Center and backed it through the Ministry of Commerce and the Federation of Chambers. In 2018 it was launched at the Jeddah Chamber in the presence of the Minister of Commerce and the board chairman, and in 2019 it moved to Riyadh to be closer to family businesses across the Kingdom.

    From there the Center moved from founding to building: distinctive initiatives in 2022, then organisational arrangements in 2024 for clear governance. The journey was crowned in 2025 by the royal order organising the Center with financial and administrative independence, opening a phase of wider impact.

    Twenty years of work, so family businesses last and pass from generation to generation.

    1. Chapter one: the idea
    2. 2005

      Beginnings

      The National Center for Family Business began in 2005, when the private and public sectors recognized the importance of doing more to protect family businesses from collapse. However, the Center did not continue its activities because of several challenges, including the lack of premises.

    3. 2012

      Royal Order to reopen

      Given the Center's importance, Royal Order No. 49691 was issued in 2012 to reopen the National Center for Family Business.

    4. Chapter two: the start
    5. 2018

      Launch in Jeddah

      At the end of 2018, the National Center for Family Business was launched at the Jeddah Chamber in the presence of the Minister of Commerce.

    6. 2019

      Move to Riyadh

      The Center then moved to Riyadh to strengthen its reach to family businesses across the Kingdom, achieving many notable milestones.

    7. Chapter three: the launch
    8. 2022

      Flagship initiatives

      As a non-profit body, the Center launched many flagship initiatives aimed at building an integrated ecosystem that contributes to the sustainability of family businesses.

    9. Chapter four: independence and wider impact
    10. 2024

      Organizational arrangements

      Work was done on proposing the Center's organizational arrangements, prepared in line with its strategy, based on the local context and guided by global best practice. They were submitted to the relevant authorities to enable the Center to carry out its work as intended, under clear governance that defines its goals and remit and makes its work sustainable.

    11. 2025

      Organization and independence

      Reflecting the wise leadership's recognition of the weight of this sector and its role in driving development, a Royal Order granted the Center financial and administrative independence.

    The Center's strategy

    Sustainable family businesses that contribute to growing the national economy

    Vision and mission

    To build an integrated ecosystem that sustains family businesses and strengthens their contribution to national development, through effective engagement and services for every stakeholder

    Stakeholders (strategic pillars)

    • Family businesses

      The Center serves family businesses, board members and executives, which it can do through:

      • The awareness and specialist content programme.
      • The continuous training and capacity-building programme.
      • The specialist advisory programme.
      • The alternative dispute resolution programme.

    • Government and the public sector

      The Center engages with government bodies through several tracks, including:

      • Acting as a think tank that answers government bodies’ requests for family businesses’ views on public policy, delivered to a high standard.
      • Supporting government bodies in meeting their goals for the family business sector.

    • Consultants and professionals

      The Center works with researchers, consultants and professionals on several tracks, such as qualifying family business specialists and connecting them with family businesses, notably:

      • The Certified Family Business Advisor programme (CFBA).
      • The Certified Family Business Mediator programme (CFBM).

    • Educational institutions

      The Center works with higher-education institutions on several fronts, including:

      • Bringing family business issues into the research and teaching agenda.
      • Launching competitions and research grants.
      • Developing the talent family businesses need to endure.

    • The local community

      The Center engages the local community in order to:

      • Show the positive role family businesses play in society, to secure their continuity.
      • Spark young men and women’s drive to start businesses and organise them later on.

    • The international community

      Strengthening ties between family businesses in the Kingdom and family businesses in other countries, through:

      • Joint events with international family business centres.
      • Special invitations to international family businesses.
    Enablers

    Strategic partnerships

    • Financial resources
    • Digital transformation
    • Media capabilities
    • Human resources

    The National Center for Family Businesses' strategy for dealing with disputes

    Some types of dispute*

    • Relationship disputes
    • Conflicts of interest
    • Conflicting goals
    • Competing for resources
    • Procedural disputes

    * Based on studies and surveys the Center carried out with family businesses in the Kingdom

    Potential disagreements

    (Preventive justice)
    • Awareness and content
    • Continuous training and capacity building
    • Specialist advisory

    Existing disputes

    (Alternative dispute resolution)
    • Amicable settlement
    • Conciliation
    • Arbitration

    The National Center for Family Businesses' scope

    Existing disputes

    (The courts)

    The courts

    Disputes are prevented before they happen, then those that do happen are handled through alternative means, and the courts are the last resort for disputes in family businesses and endowments

    The model above reflects the Center's staged approach to disputes in family businesses: diagnosis based on field studies, then preventive and training programmes that make disagreements less likely, followed by early handling and settlement through alternative means, and finally the courts as the formal route used when alternatives fail. Dispute management thus moves from treating an existing case to an institutional policy that keeps disputes as contained as possible and protects family businesses from effects that can last for generations.

    The Center

    Our reach in numbers

    • +36,000beneficiaries of the Center’s programs
    • +950family businesses served
    • +85strategic partners
    • +300mediations by Center-accredited mediators
    Family businesses

    Their weight in the Kingdom’s economy

    95%
    of private sector businesses are family businesses
    • 57%of private-sector employees work in family businesses
    • 48%of the Kingdom's total workforce
    • 69%of family businesses are in Riyadh, Makkah and the Eastern Province
    • +80%of the family-business workforce is in these regions
    • 89%have fewer than 50 employees and revenue of up to SAR 40 million
    • 17%of family businesses have a written agreement on their vision and values

    Sector figures from the Center’s 2025 study; Center figures are totals from its 2022–2025 annual reports and its published data.