Welcome back! And happy employee ownership month (in the US). How will you celebrate? 🎃
📨 In This Issue
🥃 Top Shelf News
Project Equity and Certified Employee-Owned are teaming up to celebrate employee ownership month; check out Certified EO’s hopping LinkedIn page for a roundup of EO month celebrations
Dr. Jessica Gordon-Nembhard has released a new graphic novel about Black American cooperatives. Congratulations, Dr. Gordon-Nembhard!
This next edition of the Harvard Business Review will include BR’s article “The Founder’s Final Act,” Josh Baron and co-authors answer important questions about financing, structuring, and managing their succession plans
For more, email us for a secret copy of Dr. Hand and Peter Boumgarden’s paper on the topic, out in 2026
Our of DC, a new SBA rule has affirmed that a separate valuation is no longer necessary for employee stock ownership plan-owned companies seeking loans
🌇 Events + Opportunities
Here are events in next two weeks + events we just learned about this week. If you’re attending, please report back!
October 4: The 2025 NY Cooperative Summit in, Albany, NY
October 6-7: Lafayette Square Institute’s Working Class Insights Forum in Middleburg, VA, includes a keynote from Allivate Capital’s Noelle St.Clair Lentz
October 6-7: Employee-Owned S Corporations of America’s 2025 Pacific Regional Policy Seminar in Marina del Rey, CA
🆕 | Oct 7: Common Trust hosts panel at the Ownership Economy Summit in NYC
October 7: Ownership Economy’s Reinventing Corporate Governance for good
October 9: The Ownership Initiative at Berkeley Haas School of Business’s panel on new approaches to growth, capital, and impact featuring Natural Investments and Apis & Heritage
October 9: Purpose Economy’s SO:25 conference on steward ownership in Berlin
October 9: Peter Koehler interviews author John Abrams in Portland, OR
🆕 | Oct 15: Transform Finance’d webinar on Social Entrepreneurship through Acquisition
For a full list of upcoming ownership economy events, see our Events page.
🔍 Analysis + Opinion
On employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)
North Carolina’s Colony Tire transitioned to an ESOP to preserve the firm’s vision and legacy (h/t Matthew E)
On worker cooperatives
The podcast “Flying the Coop” sits down with Jacqueline Radebaugh to discuss the legal framework behind worker cooperatives
Writing for Non-Profit Quarterly, Alex Stone highlights the ability, but often the lack of willingness, of cooperatives to fund themselves
A columnist for City and State New York argues that food cooperatives could offer a unique solution to food insecurity
If you (or someone you know!) could be of help in executing a conversion to a worker cooperative in Massachusetts, leave a comment or send a DM
On employee ownership, generally
The Iowa Center for Employee Ownership has announced their keynote speakers for their upcoming conference later this month
Empowered Ventures is celebrating their newest employee owners
Rachel Eva Merfalen has released an accessible introductory YouTube miniseries on employee ownership, “Employee Ownership: For the EO Curious:”
On the ownership economy
Tyler Rivera published Harnessing the Power of Employee Ownership, case studies on Project Equity’s clients
In his article for Fast Company, James Surowiecki documents the rise—and, he argues—the fall of the era of stakeholder capitalism
Jason Wiener explores Alternative Equity Structures (AES) and how they can share both equity and governance with employees
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has resigned over disputes concerning owner Unilever’s commitment to social responsibility
Kimberly McCourtney shares ten lessons from the Peer Networking Sessions at the 2025 NCEO Forum
Dr. Hand is traveling this week and stumbled across Let’s Decide Together: Practicing sociocracy with children by Hope Wilder. Wish him luck!
📚 Academic Opportunities + Updates
Graeme Nuttall OBE celebrates the publishing of Retaining and Transitioning Businesses in Communities - Strategies in a New Era
⏰ In Case You Missed It
Attorney Jay Cumberland from the Sustainable Economics Law Center presented on the history of worker co-ops and best strategies for attorneys aiding in worker cooperative conversions
The ESOP Association published a recap of their annual Oxford Symposium on Employee Ownership
Can’t get enough newsletter? Check out recent publications from Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and Employee Ownership Expansion Network