Wait, *who* owns cheerleading?
The Ownership Economy Newsletter (Vol. 129)
Welcome back!
A newsletter injection from Dr. Hand:
👋 I went to my niece’s state cheerleading competition last night, where I learned that public school cheerleading across Texas is controlled by one company that has been owned by four different private equity firms and most recently sold for $4.75 billion. If private equity firms did their job, $2.5 billion was transferred from cheer parents to private equity investors in just one of those sales.
Because every economic nail looks like it needs a shared ownership hammer, I couldn’t help but wonder: What if there were another way? What if Texas cheerleading were cooperatively owned by Texas families? Or steward-owned? Or protected by a trust? There are many middle ways between public funding (which boys’ football has, btw) and the financifying of high school sports.
In any case, GO CATS!
Top shelf news
The Department of Labor announced an end to its national enforcement project targeting employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs). Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling breaks down the decision; PlanSponsor, NCEO, and ESOP Association offer their analysis
Also from DC, the House also included language in an appropriations bill directing the SBA to provide information on ESOPs to business owners
And President Trump’s newest economic proposal aims to prevent institutional investors from owning single-family housing
Actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon are sharing metric-based bonuses with all crew members on their recent project, The Rip
Brett Theodos is heading a new Center for Local Finance and Growth at the Urban Institute. Congrats Brett!
Responses to Kevin Starr’s December SSIR article There is No Such Thing as Impact Investing continue to dominate our feeds. Here is a startup founder’s perspective (paywalled) on the debate
👷♂️ Job openings:
Senior Manager, Business Engagement and Partnerships at Project Equity
Associate Director of investment at Apis & Heritage Capital Partners
In this edition
Events
See our full list of upcoming events and share your event recaps with us, too!
Jan 19: U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives’ webinar on filing taxes as an LLC Cooperative
🆕 | Jan 20: NCEO’s Capital Planning webinar for ESOPs
🆕 | Jan 22: National Cooperative Business Association’s Advocacy Webinar
Jan 24: TPSS Co-Op hosts Jon Steinman at its Shaping Our Second Store event in Tacoma Park, near DC
🆕 | Jan 27: Ownership Capital Lab’s State of the Employee Ownership Fund Marketplace webinar
Feb 2-3: NCEO’s 2026 Women’s Summit and ‘Is an ESOP Right for You?’ Conference in Fort Lauderdale
Feb 3: Employee Ownership Australia’s Employee Ownership Roundtable in Perth/on Zoom
Feb 4-6: The ESOP Association’s Professionals’ Forum in Charleston
Feb 5: Common Trust’s Owners Session: Passing the Torch Without Losing the Mission
Employee stock ownership plans
New employee owners:
Apis & Heritage Capital Partners are financing their largest employee-led buyout to date, with more than 1,100 workers at B and B Maintenance in Illinois set to become owners
Texas-based Paragon Sports Constructors is now 100% employee-owned
Florida-based Advanced Roofing announced their transition to employee ownership as a means of protecting the company’s future
40 Million Owners argues that 2026 will be the year ESOP M&A goes mainstream
David Ellerman and his co-authors take a deep dive into Slovenia’s new ESOP legislation
A new episode from The Ownership Effect covers the history of ESOPs
David Fitz-Gerald’s novel If It’s the Last Thing I Do was honored with the Popular Book Prize by the Rutgers Institute. Congratulations!
In Forbes, Evan Edwards highlights to the scale of employee ownership, which now includes 10.8 million U.S. workers
For Mazars, Cara Benningfield explores employee ownership of trucking
Worker cooperatives
Cooperative Leaders and Scholars is hosting info sessions for their 8-month cooperative-focused fellowship opportunity
The National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International reflects on the cooperative movement’s 110th anniversary
A recent UN Resolution calls for the proclamation of an International Year of the Cooperative every decade
Taneli Vaskelainen argues co-operatives can play a significant role in sustainability transitions
Purpose trusts and steward ownership
Purpose Foundation shares new data highlighting recent growth in steward ownership
Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center shared a webinar on how EOTs enable succession plans that benefit employees
Employee ownership opinion and analysis
Transform Finance is launching a project in 2026 on “the development of impact metrics for employee ownership investing,” per their most recent newsletter
Texas’ Tempo Air reflects on employee ownership as a defining aspect of their company culture
Andy Farquharson shares the lessons from Denmark’s employee ownership culture
In Inc, Mandy Gilbert argues that the best ideas emerge from employee-led cultures
Miles Mudzviti reviews Alli Gibbons’s new book, The Power of Ownership Culture
The ownership economy
A recent ImpactAlpha newsletter included links to Mark Kelly’s call for a federal trust fund from AI profits, Martin Smith’s arguments for a citizen equity wallet, and Joseph Blasi’s case for citizens having a stake in AI companies (paywalled)
Beth Gohl-Greenaway argues the next decade is primed for alternative forms of ownership
Gary Community Ventures and their partners announced a wealth-building pilot designed to provide impoverished youth with asset accounts
Erinch Sahan highlights the DECENT Alliance, a more collaborative and sustainable alternative to traditional food supply chains
In Jacobin, Tej Gonza and Kosta Juri argue that commodified ownership hurts the small business owners democratic ownership could help
A Texas woman’s career changed forever when she began to help her co-workers navigate complex 401(k) matching programs
📚 Academic updates
A quick correction: last week, we mislinked the Rutgers Kelso Workshop program. Here is the right one. Check it out, especially the program overview on pp.5-6.
Tej Gonza, Gonzalo Hernandez, and Sneha Salgam posted recaps
Purpose Foundation highlights academic reports and articles on steward ownership from the past decade
CU Denver News shares how a professor’s single email connected Salvador Gonzalez to an employee-ownership–aligned internship, setting off a career pathway that culminated in his role as Director of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center
Jason Spicer was honored with the Joyce Rothschild Book Award for his book “Co-operative Enterprise in Comparative Perspective: Exceptionally Un-American?” Congratulations Jason!
David Ellerman launched a new series on lesser-known advocates of employee ownership, starting with Alexis de Tocqueville
ICYMI
CEO of Radically Open Security Melanie Rieback gave the opening keynote at the Business as Mission conference in November: