From Leadership by Legacy to Leadership by Design

Capital, Architecture, and the Design of the Impact Economy

11 February 2026 — At London’s Guildhall, leaders from philanthropy, government, private capital, and multilateral institutions gathered at the Beacon Forum to examine a critical inflection point for the global system.

In his keynote, Sergio Fernández de Córdova, Executive Chairman of PVBLIC Foundation, addressed a defining question:

What becomes of multilateralism in an era increasingly shaped by long-horizon private capital?

For nearly eighty years, the multilateral system has operated with largely the same tools, even as the world it serves has fundamentally changed. The disruptions of 2025 made visible what many had sensed beneath the surface: global risks are compounding faster than coordination mechanisms can adapt.

Yet the keynote rejected the prevailing narrative of institutional decline.

“Multilateralism is not broken. It is underutilised.”

The infrastructure of global cooperation already exists — legitimacy across borders, trust frameworks, implementation networks, and distribution capacity at scale.

What has lagged is the capital interface.

“We already have the highways. What we have lacked are the right vehicles, the right partners, and the right capital structures.”

The failure is not institutional collapse. It is structural misalignment.

Private Capital and the Generational Horizon

The address then turned to a structural shift reshaping global development: the emergence of family offices and long-horizon private capital as systemic actors.

Families operate differently. They measure time in generations, not quarters. They remain when political cycles shift. They steward complexity rather than avoid it.

“The next decade of multilateral investment will not be led by aid alone. It will be led by private capital aligned with public purpose, working through multilateral platforms.”

This is not a transfer of power. It is an evolution of responsibility.

When private capital treats multilateral institutions as infrastructure rather than ideology, scale becomes possible.

“Think of the multilateral system not as a beneficiary, but as a risk-capital partner.”

From Episodic Capital to Architecture

The core thesis was architectural.

For decades, capital has flowed episodically; grants, pilots, temporary vehicles. The moment now demands structural design.

“Capital must move from episodic deployment to durable architecture.”

Through platforms such as Family Offices for Sustainable Development, PVBLIC has focused on closing a coordination gap: educating families to understand multilateral institutions as infrastructure partners, engaging them with existing institutional frameworks, and activating capital through instruments designed for scale rather than symbolism.

Across sovereign data systems, food security, nature-based assets, technology transfer, and space-enabled development, new blended models are demonstrating that multilateral cooperation can function as investable infrastructure.

The UK Inflection Point

Hosting the Beacon Forum in London underscored a broader opportunity.

The United Kingdom has long underpinned global economic systems through legal frameworks, financial markets, and Commonwealth relationships. The architecture is established.

What is shifting now is intention.

“There is an opportunity to move from leadership by legacy to leadership by design.”

Leadership by legacy reflects inherited influence. Leadership by design requires deliberate structuring of capital, institutions, and instruments for the next decade of systemic transition.

The capital exists. The institutions exist. The global coordination platforms exist.

The work ahead is to align them with precision.

“This is not about reinventing the system. It is about finally using it as it was meant to be used.”

Learn more about PVBLIC Foundation’s Family Offices for Sustainable Development: pvblic.org/family-offices