Flooding the Zone on Labor Day

, and

Aug 30, 2025

One big thing: Expanding ESOPs had a busy week!
- In advance of Labor Day, employee-owners at Jasper Engines & Transmission (Indiana), Proponent (California), Apache (Wisconsin), and AVID (Rhode Island) all share how employee ownership has empowered them

On employee stock ownership plans
On worker cooperatives
On employee/purpose trusts + steward ownership
On the ownership economy

Chris Cooper from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center honors the late Steve Clem ❤️
Andrew Pendleton and Andrew Robinson won the inaugural Nigel Mason Award for their scholarship on employee ownership in the UK. Congrats, Andrews!
Transform Finance published a primer on social entrepreneurship through acquisition, also covered in ImpactAlpha
Nathan Schneider announces Garlic and Roses, a new publication by and for food cooperatives

Events in the next three weeks:

August 30: The 3rd annual Rutgers-Oxford Employee Ownership Research Symposium in Oxford, UK
September 1: Joseph Blasi presents The Robert Oakeshott Lecture 2025 at Bayes Business School
September 9: Mission Investors Exchange’s Ownership Lens Series part 2: Investing for Systemic Change Through Employee Ownership (virtual)
September 9-10: Texas/Oklahoma Chapter of The ESOP Association’s 2025 Fall Conference in Dallas, TX 🤠
Sep 9-11: The annual Great Game of Business Conference in Arlington, TX 🤠
Sep 9-11: Peter Koehler’s Wayfinding in the Legal Landscape of Purpose Driven Business, a panel at BLD PNW in Portland, OR
September 10: Project Equity’s Doing Business in Uncertain Times (virtual)
🆕 September 10: MetaGov’s online seminar on the historical roots of collective and community governance
September 10-12: Employee-Owned S Corporations of America’s 2025 Federal Policy Conference & Lobby Day in DC
September 13: Purpose Economy’s panel, Stewardship: Who should hold power over companies, and who should benefit from their profits? at the Next Economies Summit (in Istanbul)
🆕 September 18: Kindred Futures’ Honoring the Collective: Reimagining the Care Economy through Cooperative Power in Atlanta, GA

For a full list of upcoming ownership economy events, see our Events page.

Nancy Wiefeck has some new data on employee ownership and economic well-being
Registration is open for this year’s ESOPATHON
Christopher Marquis highlights how Pariveda and Bob’s Red Mill use ESOPs to prioritize purpose and long-term resilience over quick exits (h/t Jennifer B.)
Brenda Wilbur points out the need for financial literacy, transparency, and accountability in employee ownership, in particular through open book management
The Kansas City Chiefs’ practice jerseys now feature the logo of local employee-owned firm Burns & McDonnell
New Jersey Business Magazine encourages owners to consider an ESOP before selling to private equity
Washington Technology interviews David Blauzvern about ESOPs as an option for government contractors

The ICA Group’s latest video explains internal capital accounts, showing why they matter for cooperatives and employee ownership more broadly
The International Cooperative Alliance published its report on the 2024 Coopathon, an annual youth development event
Jacqueline Radebaugh explains how cooperatives can use a candidacy period to ensure new members are aligned while helping maintain a balanced membership

EO Sector explores the divergent paths of two toy stores: US-based Toys”R”Us and UK-based The Entertainer, now one of the UK’s largest employee-owned companies

Check out two recent newsletters from our friends at Ownership Capital Lab and EOX
In Switzerland, nonprofits are keeping housing affordable by running housing cooperatives, a “third way between owning and renting”
In Crowdfund Insider, Omar Faridi argues that employee ownership is underutilized outside the tech sector
For California Management Review, John Lund-Delaossa argues business curriculums should be designed to create prosocial business leaders who continue to grow shared ownership
Brenna Davis breaks down the difference between following a mission and having a purpose
The Tandem Center, which promotes direct employee ownership, has kicked its social media up a notch, including with this post about SpawGlass, a Texas-based construction firm
Tom Strong sat down with podcast host Michelle Wilson hosted Tom Strong on the State of Our Workforce podcast to discuss the intersection between employee ownership and workforce development:

At the New School, Trebor Scholz has created an online course exploring how AI can be used to advance shared ownership (h/t Melissa H.)
- Scholz and Stefano Tortorici also wrote a (paywalled) article about it for Harvard Business Review

In Health Affairs Scholar, Katrina Kazda shared part 2 of a two-part series exploring the cooperative difference in home care
Scott Moon urges more B-corps to consider employee ownership

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