Alexander M. Franke, born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1989, holds a degree in Business Administration (B.Sc.) and Finance (M.Sc) from Frankfurt School of Finance and Management. He gained first experience in the banking industry by working in the corporate finance department of a large German Landesbank. Today he works in the structured finance unit of a leading international bank in Frankfurt am Main. Focussing on corporate finance topics during his master studies, the author was fascinated by the increasing number of family firms accepting private equity firms as minority investors. His research led to the present study examining the cooperation mechanisms between family firms and private equity investors.