See Y'all in Austin

May 09, 2025

Save the date: The Purpose Trust Ownership Network and the Texas Center for Employee Ownership are throwing our first full conference in Austin, Texas, February 26-27, 2026
With Evan graduating, this newsletter is all Dr. Hand. Please enjoy the typos!

Texas hardscape company ERW Site Solutions, Texas oilfield services company Rickman Transport, and Michigan waste and recycling equipment company Sebright Products are now employee-owned
Bill news:
- US senators introduced the American Ownership and Resilience Act to
  - “prevent foreign takeovers and closures of U.S. businesses,” or “return American profits to American workers, instead of foreign investors,” or “prevent the offshoring of American manufacturing, enhance supply chain resiliency, keep businesses American-owned and operated, and enable American workers to build substantial retirement assets,” depending which co-author you ask
  - Another US bill has a different goal set: “to rein in bureaucratic overreach and protect Americans’ retirement”
- Bills with new tax-breaks for employee owned firms are making progress through the Colorado legislature
- William Castellano has been appointed Director of the Rutgers Institute, taking over from Joseph Blasi. Congrats, Bill!
  - The Institute also helped launch the New Jersey Economic Development Authority’s new ESOP Assistance Program, which is now accepting applications
Chris Cooper from the Ohio Employee Ownership Center won the Exit Planning Institute’s 2025 Circle of Excellence award. Congrats, Chris!
I’m looking forward to John Abrams’ From Founder to Future, which came in the mail this week; get your copy here

Also see: our full list of upcoming events

The Connecticut Center for Employee Ownership is hiring
Ownership Capital Lab is developing “a Capital Roadmap for Employee Ownership.” Participate in their survey here
May 12-18: The Economy of Francesco’s Incubator for Non-Extractive Organizations in Krapanj Island, Croatia
- Purpose Economy’s Annika Schneider will be there discussing steward-ownership
May 13-16: The TEA National Conference on ESOP advocacy and education, in Washington, D.C.
May 14: NCEO’s next online meeting date for companies that are considering transitioning to an EOT
May 14-15: ImpactPHL and SOCAP’s Total Impact Summit in Philadelphia
🆕 | May 15: NCEOC’s webinar Small Business Succession Through Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) webinar

Adria Scharf published a new article, The impact of employee share ownership on job quality: insights from closely held businesses
Christophe Sente and Chris Mackin examine “European ambivalence toward the idea of broad-based employee ownership of firms”
Mackenzie Scott’s dissertation (congrats!) “explores how organizational forms and workforce practices shape frontline work experiences and organizational performance” in nursing homes
Vincent Hösi is skeptical about the cooperative conglomerate Mondragon’s commitment to sustainability
Organizational Models, Cultural Dynamics, and CSR Applications in Employee-Owned Enterprises by Zyed Achour’s is out
- Mark Kaswan from the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley served on the editorial team 🇨🇱
David Ellerman and Tej Gonza ask: When is a “Coop” not really a cooperative? and put forward a critical analysis of different forms of employee ownership

A recent Supreme Court decision could make it easier to sue ESOPs, writes Corey Rosen
ImpactAlpha interviews Pete Stavros of KKR, Ownership Works, and Expanding ESOPs

April De Simone, Adriana Abizadeh, Kevin Clegg and Paul MacArthur ask How Can a Perpetual Purpose Trust Build Community? in Nonprofit Quarterly
The Irish ProShare Administration highlights just how gangbusters the growth of employee ownership trusts in the UK has been
Purpose Economy thinks Ben & Jerry’s should be steward-owned

The latest B Lab podcast features Julian McKinley, Co-Executive Director of the Democracy at Work Institute
Bill Cheney and Doug O’Brien believe Cooperatives are America’s Best-Kept Foreign Policy Asset
Jason Weiner of Colorado’s latest newsletter is out
Last Thursday was May Day, International Workers' Day
- In The African, Geneva Fourie argues it’s time for unions to update their strategies to include share ownership and workplace democracy
- The Editorial Board of VOI in Indonesia says much the same, as does DiEM25, a socialist outfit in Europe
Worker-owned Red Sun Press of Boston and CityBikes of Portland are shutting down (h/t ICA Group)

A Swedish lawyer on YouTube makes the case for workplace democracy
NCEO and Common Trust both published comparative looks at different paths to employee ownership
Eric Casey covers the Massachusetts Center for Employee Ownership’s most recent event for Worcester Business Journal
In Forbes, Cheryl Robinson writes about Thai Randolph, who wants to build “an operating system for the ownership economy,” which I’m curious about

Aspen EOP is now posting videos and podcasts from its Employee Ownership Ideas Forum with the Rutgers Institute
- Ownership Capital Lab’s recent webinar on how investors can help scale employee ownership is available now, too
John Guzek and Ashley Whillans explore the barriers to widespread adoption of employee ownership in this 2024 paper, which makes the case for employee ownership trusts without mentioning employee ownership trusts
- Also interesting: a 2015 paper by Keith Taylor asking why nonprofits are often more authoritarian than for-profits.
Color us curious: Frisco, Texas and Chennai, India-based software company Ideas2IT says it has been 33% directly employee-owned (i.e. not an ESOP) since 18 months ago

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