Peter Francis

Teaching Statement

Peter Francis teaches S512, “The Yin and Yang of Family Business Transitions,” a course that delves into the dynamics inherent in all family-owned enterprises. He has been involved in family businesses for his entire life on both sides of his family. He personally completed a leveraged buyout of a family-owned business after graduating from the Stanford GSB in 1987. For over 20 years, Peter has been a frequent speaker to family business audiences and a guest-lecturer at Stanford and Wharton. With the perspective of having run a 130 year old, family business that is currently welcoming its sixth generation into the world, Peter has a passion for the benefits and challenges found in this ubiquitous structure.

Bio

Peter Francis is the Managing Director of MIMCO, LLC, an investment company formed to manage six investment partnerships, as well as direct ownership interests in real estate, leverage-buyout, natural gas royalty and private equity funds. Through the search fund model, he directly owns interests in more than fifty small businesses.

He retired as the Board Chair in 2008 and President and CEO in 2009 of J.M. Huber Corporation, a privately held global supplier of engineered materials, food ingredients, natural resources, and technology-based services with annual sales of approximately $1.9 billion. In 2013, Huber received the IMD-Lombard Odier Family Business Award for excellence in family business. Francis joined Huber in 1992 as vice chairman, before assuming operating roles in 1993.

In his previous career, Mr. Francis owned and operated three companies, including one leveraged buy-out sourced using the search fund model. He lived and worked outside the United States for eight years and held various positions in marketing, engineering, R&D, manufacturing, and general management with both large and small companies.

Mr. Francis is on the Board of the Dover Corporation, a NYSE-listed diversified industrial manufacturer. He is on the Advisory Council of the Stanford GSB and the Board of Trustees of Tabor Academy. He formerly sat on the Boards of Rumson Country Day School, New Jersey Institute of Technology, Cascade Cabinet Corporation and AMS Acquisition Corporation.

Academic Degrees

• MBA, Stanford GSB, 1987 (Arjay Miller Scholar)
• BA in Psychology (cum laude & Phi Betta Kappa), Middlebury College