Reclaiming the Economy

Jan 31, 2026

The Wellbeing Economic Alliance (WEALL) launched its Reclaim the Economy Week, hosting multiple events and publishing a petition calling on political leaders to redesign economic systems for the wellbeing of people and the planet
JPMorganChase announced a $250,000 investment in the Iowa Center for Employee Ownership to support education and transition assistance. Congrats AI-CEO!
Incoming governments in Germany and the Netherlands plan to introduce steward-ownership legislation
Daniel Gitterman and Sonal Shah are looking for chapter authors for a new book Brookings book, Catalyzing Impact: How Business and Philanthropy Spark Change; email Dr. Hand for details

For a full list of upcoming events, see our Events page. And share your conference recaps with us!

Feb 2-3: NCEO’s 2026 Women’s Summit and ‘Is an ESOP Right for You?’ Conference in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Feb 3: 2026 Employee Ownership Roundtable in Perth, AU (and Zoom!)
Feb 4-6: The ESOP Association’s Professionals’ Forum in Charleston, SC
Feb 5: Common Trust’s Owners Session: Passing the Torch Without Losing the Mission
Feb 10-Mar 3: National Center for Employee Ownership’s Why ESOP Communication is Vital webinar series
Feb 11: Regenerative Social Finance’s virtual event on alternative ownership (ft. Jenny Everett!)
Feb 11: Transform Finance’s webinar offering key insights from their new report
Feb 11: Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center’s Employee Ownership 101 webinar
Feb 11-13: Purposeful Planning Institute’s Transforming Trusts for Purposeful Impact

Feb 19: Collective Action for Just Finance’s webinar on impact first funds, ft. Project Equity’s David Kenney
Feb 24: North Carolina Employee Ownership Center’s NC Employee Ownership Ambassador Training Program
Feb 26: Project Equity and Strategic Inflection Advisory’s Why Boutique Consultancies are Ideal for Employee Ownership Transitions
Feb 26: Rochester Institute of Technology’s The Future of Business - How Shared Ownership Drives Innovation and Performance
March 3: SV2’s Innovative Finance Spotlight 2026 ft. Alison Lingane
March 10-11: eoa’s course on Representing and Developing Employee Voices
March 12: EOX and Deanalytics’ Beyond Retirement, The Real Story of ESOP Payouts
May 2: Cooperative Development Foundation’s 5k in DC
May 7-9: The Economy of Francesco’s event in Assisi, Italy
May 15-16: California Co-op Conference; accepting speaker proposals through Feb 2nd!
Aug 26-28: NCEO’s EOT Workshop 3.0 at the NCEO Forum in Phoenix. Sign up to stay updated
Oct 1: Iowa Center for Employee Ownership’s Annual Conference in Ankeny, IA

Ownership Capital Lab is hiring for a Senior Manager at their Innovations Lab and a part time Philanthropic Partnerships Lead
Donuts Economic Action Lab is hiring a remote Business and Enterprise Lead

The latest edition of EOX’s Ownership Everywhere newsletter features new research from EOX and Deanalytics on ESOP distributions, news from North Dakota, Missouri, and a Stakehold shoutout (thanks y’all!)
Common Trust published a resource for those considering a transition to employee ownership
SV2 announced Alison Lingane as a speaker at their upcoming Innovative Finance Spotlight event
Tandem Center for Shared Business Success announced the release of their guide to employee ownership, co-authored with NCEO’s Corey Rosen and other industry leaders
An opinion piece from Logan Walters in Florida State University News asks whether worker cooperatives and employee ownership could work on-campus
The Aspen Institute offers a look at the year ahead for employee ownership
TeamShares founder Michael Sutherland Brown sits down with Loren Feldman and the 21 Hats podcast ahead of the company’s public offering
Columbian energy company Ecopetrol has added a worker-director voice to their governing board
The Alternative Exit podcast hosted Noelle St.Clair Lentz of Alleviate Impact Capital on the role of capital structures in employee ownership transitions

Journey to an ESOP’s most recent episode with Blue Ridge Associate Pete Shuler offers practical insights into each stage of an ESOP lifecycle
Fourteen ESCA members were featured on Forbes’ 40th Annual List of America’s Top Private Companies
The ESOP Association released its latest ESOP Report
- The newest episode of TEA’s Ownership Effect podcast hosted Mindset’s Kendra Kosko Isaacson on ESOP policymaking
Writing for NCEO, Chris Wingrad breaks down 80/20’s years-long ESOP dispute (paywalled)

A new piece from U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives highlights how midwest cooperatives came together to learn and share tips
The International Cooperative Alliance released their recording of a webinar celebrating the year of the cooperative and analyzing recent movement trends
- … and their regional and global teams met this week to prepare to launch the new Legal Framework Analysis and its accompanying workshop
- ICYMI, checkout ICA’s interview series with cooperative leaders
Co-op News’ Executive Editor Rebecca Harvey offers insights into how to use data to better understand impact in the cooperative movement
The Cooperative Development Program launched a Cooperative Leaders and Scholars Fellowship for those looking to make an impact in the cooperative business community
ICA Group’s Allison Curtis reflects on ICA’s first edition of their Worker Buyout Training Program

Steward-owned highlights Pete Russell’s recent definition of steward ownership on James Reed CBE’s podcast, All About Business
Jon Shell sat down with Alternative Exit’s Andy Farquharson to discuss the policy work that put EOTs on the national agenda in Canada
Purpose Foundation finds (some) common ground with Donald Trump’s view of ownership
ICYMI: We learned this week about Delaware’s new Well-Being Trusts
- Though focused on families and individuals, it does broaden the idea well-being beyond purely financial considerations to include what researchers call socioemotional wealth

Alastair Colin-Jones of Economics of Mutuality Alliance announced a new fund
NextCity’s latest podcast featured a new Urban Institute report on how new real estate models are building community ownership
Common Future highlights five key lessons from their recent webinar on community ownership
The Economy of Francesco released a video with highlights from their 2025 Global Event

Antony Bugg-Levine has joined the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Senior Fellow working on Capital Markets Shaping. Our congratulations, Antony!
In Compensation and Benefits Review, Amer Morshed publishes a study comparing how workplace democracy and transparency shape performance in employee-owned firms
In a paper published in the International Review of Applied Economics, Begoña Echaburu Mulet and co-authors Saioa Aranda Lasagabaster and Eva Gallardo-Gallardo examine talent and social construction in employee-owned organizations
David Ellerman’s newest edition in his series highlighting lesser-known workplace democracy supporters covers 19th century Senator Leland Stanford
N. Narimov published a brief connecting employee ownership to transformational leadership (PDF)
Simon Kinsey published his master’s thesis, Collective Labour in a Capitalist Market: The Historical Struggle to Secure a Place for Worker Cooperatives in the Canadian Political Economy. Congrats Simon!

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