Happy May Day, adios Megan, and welcome Gabriel!
The Ownership Economy Newsletter, Vol. 143
👋 Welcome back!
The Stakehold started as a research cluster at SMU, and it was the inimitable Megan Garvey who—as a freshman and sophomore, mind you—did all this:
Created the first EO+WD newsletter three years ago
Managed a team of student writers and event planners
Helped plan the first national convening on purpose trusts, and
Co-authored our first policy white paper, Policy Recommendations for Supporting Employee Ownership Trusts and Perpetual Purpose Trusts in the United States
This week Megan moseys on from her time at The Stakehold, which would not exist without her. Readers, connect with Megan and wish her well as she prepares to crush law school!
Finally, some happy news for The Stakehold: new team member Gabriel Gray will work this summer to fill Megan and Tiffany’s shoes. Welcome, Gabriel!
🥃 Top Shelf News
Happy May Day! USFWC lays out what co-ops can do and Isabelle Ferreras shares Democratizing Work’s May Day momentum
🇨🇦 The Canadian Government just made permanent the country’s employee ownership capital gains exemption, which Falice Chin argues could reshape business ownership in Canada
A new multi-organization report, The Business Case for Community Ownership, frames community ownership as made up of community-centered vision, governance, and benefits. This resonates deeply with:
B Corps’ increasing focus on ownership, power, and accountability
Momentum building around the release this summer of our Skoll Centre white paper (broken link fixed; sorry!)
The revival of academic interest in common purpose
👉 In This Issue
Events + Opportunities
Employee Ownership
Employee Stock Ownership Plans
Worker cooperatives
Employee ownership trusts
The Ownership Economy
Steward ownership + purpose trusts
Community-owned real estate
Academic News
📅 Events + Opportunities
For events more than a week away, see our main Events page.
May 2: Cooperative Development Foundation’s 5k in DC, aiming to bring people from the Co-op community together
May 4: Purpose Foundation’s fireside chat with Eric Ries on his new book, Incorruptible
May 5: The start of the ESOP Association’s National Conference in DC
Plus the IFG New York 2026 Conference, where David York speaks on steward ownership and purpose trusts
Also see HBS Ownership Project’s seminar on establishing norms in employee-owned companies at the Harvard Business School, with Prof. Ashley Whillans
May 6: Project Equity’s Exit, Succession Planning, and Employee Ownership Options panel discussion in San Francisco
Also, WICEO and Common Trust’s joint introduction to EOTs webinar
May 7: VEOC’s Introduction to Employee Ownership Trusts featuring Matt Cropp and Christina Newbrough
And the first day of the Economy of Francesco’s event in Assisi, Italy
Opportunities
The Skoll Centre at Oxford is hiring a Senior Manager for Research and Insights (who might get to work with me on our white paper!)
The application deadline to speak at for NCEO’s August Forum is this this Monday, May 4th
Transform Finance asks to speak with founders who want to align culture, product, and values
Employee Ownership
An Illinois bill to support employment social enterprises is headed for a vote
A recent post from HBS covers how employee ownership can help close the wealth gap
Also from Harvard: Ethan Rouen also released a new video about the profit-sharing at guitar-maker Gibson (also see Taylor Guitars of Canada, which became 100% employee-owned in 2021)
🎧 NPR’s Planet Money sits down with KKR’s Pete Stavros and Capital Safety’s Cindy Cordes to discuss the “pro-worker movement” in private equity
Corey Rosen covers the argument by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund CEO that employee ownership belongs on every board’s agenda
For even more employee ownership news, check out Jason Wiener’s latest newsletter
📈 Employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
Haverford Systems of Pennsylvania and The Boldt Group of Wisconsin are now employee-owned, and Dallas-based, ESOP-owned Databank won a 2026 TITAN Business Award for its employee engagement strategy. Congrats all!
Employee owners won a $4.5 million settlement from an Alabama poultry company
A California bill supporting ESOP-owned construction companies passed out of committee
Analysis and opinion: Katie Boland on Bob’s Red Mill and King Arthur Baking; Scott Moon on S-Corp vs. C-Corp ESOPs; Rob Francais on the state of employee-owned Registered Investment Advisors
🎧 Chuck Mazzanti is three weeks from launching the Construction ESOP Collective Podcast; Journey to an ESOP hosts Steve Baker on employee education; and Alternative Exit hosts Joseph Cureton, CEO of an ESOP-based roll-up of home care agencies
For more ESOP news, check out The ESOP Association’s latest ESOP Report
Worker cooperatives
The International Cooperative Alliance released a new study on gender-based policies in cooperatives in Asia-Pacific countries
For more co-op news, check out the latest newsletter from Coop Insider
Employee ownership trusts
🇬🇧 William Sword, a fourth generation family bakery in the UK, is now an employee ownership trust. Congrats!
Magenta Associates published a communications guide for employee ownership transitions
CommonTrust recaps Cypress Valley’s transition to an EOT
📺 The Steward Chair interviews Texas-based Text-em-all on their “culture code”:
The Ownership Economy
Bloomberg’s Matt Levine wrote up Elle Griffin’s six-digit fundraise for her book We Should Own The Economy
The Economic Policy Institute and others ask Congress to center workers in federal AI legislation
🎧 This Week in Impact asks: Will the real ownership economy please stand up?
Jeremy Lent argues we are owed a dividend from the wealth generated by AI
Steward ownership + purpose trusts
Germany took a step forward on being the first country to create a legal form for steward ownership
Skoll Centre released six case studies of large-scale, sustainability-focused companies, at least half of which are steward-owned
For more purpose trust ownership news, check out the latest newsletter from the Purpose Trust Ownership Network, which introduced itself in a webinar last week:
Community-owned real estate
Steve Dubb of Shelterforce lays out what the US can learn from the success of community land trusts and cooperative housing in Canada
The Massachusetts Governor greenlit $1.1 million to community land trusts
Community land trusts are advancing in California, Idaho/Montana, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Washington
📚 Academic News
Cal State East Bay launched the Employee Ownership Opportunity Initiative with a $2m donation from Joseph Cabral
Celine Schmidt and Gregor Bouville chronicle the unlikely transformation of a factory to a worker owned cooperative
Chris Mackin reviews three recent employee ownership manuscripts
Rodolphe Durand and Harrison John Munro-Clark are working to revive the idea of common purpose management, an idea that traces at least back to the work of early 20th century political scientist and management scholar Mary Follett (h/t Kevin Miner)