🚀 To Iowa With Love

, and

Oct 24, 2025

Thanks to a plug by Daniel Goldstein at the Iowa Employee Ownership Conference, our daily subscription growth was up 3000% on Thursday. Thanks Daniel! And a big welcome to our new readers
- If you have an event coming up and value what we do at The Stakehold, feel free to similarly snag and share this QR code

Stakehold guest contributor Rachel Eva Merfalen reported out on this month’s Ownership Economy Summit. Paul D’Ambrosa shared her highlights on LinkedIn, too.
- You can be a guest contributor, too! SOCAP, anybody?
Ashoka welcomed Trust Neighborhood’s David Kemper as a 2025 Ashoka Fellow. Congrats, David!
NCEO released its 2025 ESOP Corporate Governance Report
Ownership Works launched Ownership Works Japan, their first international affiliate. Congratulations to all!
Slovenia joined the US, UK, and Canada as the fourth country with dedicated ESOP legislation

Here are events in next two weeks + events we just learned about this week. If you’re attending, please become a guest contributor and report back!

Oct 24: Elevate Small Business Conference 2025 in Miami, FL
Oct 27-29: Social Capital Markets’ SOCAP25 in San Francisco
Oct 28: The Georgia Center for Employee Ownership’s Employee Ownership Month celebration
Oct 29: The Illinois Center for Employee Ownership’s Employee Ownership Month celebration
Oct 30: TX/OK Chapter of the ESOP Association’s accelerator course for new employee owners
🆕 | Nov 4: Centre for Democratic Business’ Democratic Business Summit in Glasgow
🆕 | Nov 5: Common Future’s webinar on Redefining Risk in the Ownership Economy
- Also see Corey Rosen’s recent piece on the risks for ESOP actors

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

Apis & Heritage Capital Partners provided the capital necessary for a small business ESOP transition
JDSupra takes a closer look at whether ESOPs are the right answer for transitioning business owners

Conscious Wealth Investing highlights growing field of employee ownership trusts (EOTs)
New budget changes have arrived for EOTs in the UK
Pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk has turned leadership of its board over to the Novo Foundation in a transition to foundation governance
Founder Miren Oca speaks on the motivational power and importance of purpose
- Check out her feature in Inc. Magazine as well!
PURPOSE highlights steward ownership as an answer to growing business succession questions
The first healthcare company to adopt the EOT model, LiveOak Living, is right in our backyard! 🤠

Nonprofit Quarterly shares how community ownership and housing cooperatives could help Puerto Rico’s housing crisis
Chile is working to build a new “solidarity economy” that is values-based and designed to build a world beyond profits
Did you know? One in three Americans are members of at least one cooperative, such as a credit union, utility cooperative, or consumer cooperative

New research from Jegoo Lee in MIT Sloan Management Review shows employee ownership to be a powerful driver of environmental action
Guy Major and Jonatha Preminger propose protected profit sharing as a mechanism for UK EOTs to balance “the needs of entrepreneurs, workers and investors”
Joseph Heath asks whether cooperatives are more virtuous than corporations, and argues that “cooperatives are not nearly as different from corporations as is commonly assumed”
Gabriel Burdin and Fabio Landini argue that workers’ beliefs explains why capital typically hires labor rather than the other way around
Shinya Iwatsuki explores direct worker consultation about AI technology in Japanese firms
David Ellerman’s most recent white paper argues that fair market valuations are inappropriate for employee-owned firms and partnerships

The Exit Planning Institute outlines the top five reasons family business successions fail (h/t David S.)
Tom Strong speaks on the power of employee ownership to increase not only wealth, but financial literacy
One CEO shares how his company’s transition to employee ownership has positively influenced the company’s entire culture
The Aspen Institute hosted their Ideas Economy event in Newark last week
PURPOSE released a recording of the opening of their 2025 Steward Ownership Conference last month:

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