For Employee Owners, By Employee Owners
The Ownership Newsletter • Vol. 124
Welcome Back
We start this week with two small favors and one note of gratitude. Two ways you can strengthen the shared ownership community:
Julie Menter of Transform Finance is looking for examples of employee ownership + entrepreneurship through acquisition
Greg Brodsky of start.coop is looking for help developing a survey on employee and worker ownership
Thank you to Kyle Soo for the LinkedIn love!
👇 In This Issue
Owner voices (🆕)
🥃 Top Shelf News
The House Small Business Committee approved a bill to expand the Small Business Administration’s employee ownership outreach program
Project Equity published an executive summary of their forthcoming Black Employee Ownership Research Project; sign up for updates here. And their EO Advantage Program now qualifies as 16 CEPA CE hours for business advisors
🏙️ Events
For a full list of upcoming events, see our Events page. And share your conference recaps with us! Coming up:
🆕 Nov 20-21: The Corporate Rebels Summit in Barcelona, Spain; see a preview of some of the speakers
Nov 25-26: EOA’s annual conference in the UK
🆕 Nov 27: Somos Stewards’ webinar on purpose driven ownership in Spain
Dec 5: Start.coop’s event celebrating Black cooperatives
Dec 10: The Industrial Common’s webinar on lessons learned from Spanish and Italian cooperatives
Dec 10: Levelup Coops’ workshop exploring different forms of capital
🆕 Dec 10: The Fidan Kurtulus Seminar on Employee Share Ownership by The Institute for Business in Global Society (BiGS) at Harvard Business School and The Ownership Project
Owner voices
We’re trying out a new section this week, highlighting news for and by employee owners. What do you think? We promise not to use the acronym FEOBEO.
Arkansas-based Cypress Valley Meat shares their journey to an employee ownership trust
ESOP holding company 3LS acquired Intrust IT; hear from Intrust’s CEO on the acquisition
An ESOP Executive Vice President shares the impact he has seen first-hand and advocates for more accessible employee ownership policy
Employee-owner Jon Martens shares how employee ownership has shaped his and his family’s legacies
Employee-owners at Garney Construction traveled to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress and attend ESCA’s Federal Conference
Employee ownership analysis and opinion
John Abrams reflects on highlights from his recent book tour
Ownership Associates UK celebrated its 15th anniversary. Congrats all!
Scott Moon, Executive Director of the Baker Project for Employee Ownership, authored an article comparing employee ownership to private equity ownership
Writing for Fortune, ESCA CEO Stephanie Silverman explores how employee ownership can aid the next generation (h/t Myrtle B.)
Ownership Capital Lab published their November newsletter including spotlights on emerging EO funds and a preview of their forthcoming roadmap
Certified Employee-Owned explores how employee ownership can be leveraged to win the next generation of talent
For ImpactAlpha, Harvey Koh and Margot Kane collaborated to highlight the mindset shifts that are necessary for greater employee ownership adoption
Sherry Heyl muses on how companies can create more dynamic, future thinking cultures
ESOPs
Apis & Heritage was recognized by Emerging Manager Monthly for their work to narrow the wealth gap through employee ownership
Slovenia’s new ESOP Act is making waves across Europe
NCEO released the results from their survey on ESOP Executive and Board Compensation for 2025
Worker cooperatives
Brazil is showing how to seize the moment for cooperatives, working to create a future that is better for all
The Cooperative Development Foundation has announced a new strategic framework focused on increasing the capacity of the cooperative sector
In response to a recent federal budget, Canadian cooperatives are pushing for more policy and support for worker cooperatives in the country
This Wednesday, Wisconsin Ag Connection hosted a workshop on farmer worker owned cooperatives
Purpose trusts and steward ownership
In Conscious Wealth Investing, Zarin Kresge and Michelle Philippon highlight EOTs as an emerging option for employee ownership transitions
EO Sector argues that a decline in EOT transitions in the UK reflects the market’s increased focus on true employee benefit
In a guest blog for EOA, Barry Horner explores the challenges and nuances of EOT leadership
ImpactAlpha highlighted perpetual purpose trust TrimTab and its pitch to wealthy families looking to have an impact
The ownership economy
Some interesting (to us, at least) political news: This new report from left-wing Democratic organizations argues that the party should move from redistributive to predistributive policies. But the report doesn’t include employee ownership among them, which is a real miss
DemocracyNext highlights a piece from the London School of Economics on how the BBC could structure itself to incorporate the public in future decisions
Writing for Community Returns, Andrea Steffes-Tuttle makes suggestions for how Boulder (and other U.S. cities) can choose community and see economic success
In The Financial Times, Nick Berggruen explores how predistrubution via a universal basic credit could create a more fair AI economy
A new report from Build Healthy Places Network highlights the ability of CDFIs to serve as catalysts for healthier, more sustainable communities
Elizabeth Garlow shares her recent conversation at Georgetown on how to create an economy for the common good
The Community Finance Academy shares how communities can raise major capital with grassroots efforts
The Post Growth Institute highlights how French territories are honoring their community roots by combining respect for the environment and economic resilience
Marcus Feldthus shares his recommendations for books that look at economics and capitalism from different perspectives
📚 Academic updates
Dr. Anne Sanders, Nina Berenbrinker, and Christina Hood conducted an interview study to understand the impetus of entrepreneurs adopting steward ownership structures
Just dropped: the cover art for Jonathan Michie and Joseph Blasi’s book, Employee Share Ownership and Profit Sharing: A Global Phenomenon
James D. White and Krista White published a book on how to build a purpose-driven organization
⏰ ICYMI
Keith Kelleher’s article in The Forge highlights the need for worker-driven and community-based unions to create long-term stability
The Fund for Jobs Worth Owning earned a grant from Wells Fargo to start their Care Cooperatives Business Growth Initiative
Minsun Ji reflects on Colorado’s annual employee ownership event
Text-Em-All CEO Brad Herrmann speaks on how an EOT ensured his company’s legacy: