Where Have You Been? + Transitions

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Nov 26, 2024

Welcome Back

Have you attended any recent EO events? Reply to this email and let us know!
- We can boost what you post on LinkedIn, a la Rachel Eva Merfalen
- Or you can be a guest writer, like Andrea Steffes-Tuttle
It’s a great way to capture—and share—what’s going on in the world of employee ownership.

🗞️ News To Know

EO transitions: California’s Oliver’s Market is now 100% employee owned
- Apis & Heritage Capital Partners converted Maryland-based Consolidated Construction Services to an employee owned business via an employee-led buyout (ELBO)
- Optimax, a perpetual purpose trust, starts its leadership transition
That other transition: Donald Trump wants Lori Chavez-DeRemer to serve as the next Secretary of Labor, which regulates ESOPs. The ESOP Association says she has “a good record on ESOP issues”
- Expanding ESOPs, a recently formed lobbying campaign, argues that ESOPs are and should be a bipartisan issue
- Lisa Gomez from the Department of Labor strikes the same bipartisanship tone in her post on the value of worker ownership
Jobs: NCEOC is hiring an Executive Director
- Wholehearted Bookkeeping is hiring a Cooperative Bookkeeper
InvestCorp is Ownership Works’ newest partner
- Correct us here, but it looks like this is the first Ownership Works partnership with an “LP” (limited partner), the asset managers that invest in private equity fund managers (the “GP,” or general partner)
News from the states: The Rhode Island Worker Cooperative Alliance is live
- MNCEO dropped its second Worker Co. podcast: an interview with CodeWeavers, an employee ownership trust

🔍 Research + Analysis

Diane Ives reflects on a decade of wealth-building strategy at Project Equity
The IA-CEO recognizes the role of ESOPs across the state through an interview with David Zrostlik, president of employee owned Stellar Industries
- Andy Manchir gives five takeaways from Katz Sapper & Miller’s transition to an ESOP in Inside Public Accounting
Dhevarsha Ramjettan and Safiyya Patel discuss employee ownership options in South Africa, where Howard Brodsky also covers the the opening of the African Cooperatives Centre (ACC)
New papers: Frank Shipper and Valerie Whitecomb published a new paper on the critical success factors for companies transitioning to an employee ownership model
- Emily Erickson and Professor Chris Warhurst have a new white paper out on the benefits of employee ownership in the UK

🌇 What’s Coming Up

December 2: The Employee Ownership Expansion Network & the Florida Center for Employee Ownership (FLCEO) host a fireside chat with Ocaquatics Swim School and their EOT transition
December 3: Project Equity and Kaiser Permanente’s next webinar on succession planning and employee ownership
December 4: The 2nd Annual Ownership Economy Summit in New York City. Register here
December 11: Rutgers’ workshop on Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs) and Labor Market Inequality: Investigating the Motherhood Penalty, Marriage Premium, and Racial Disparities
December 12: The Ownership Capital Lab and Transform Finance host a webinar on their most recent in-depth EO research & investing opportunities
🆕 | December 17: The Menke Group hosts a webinar on how to Maximize Success with ESOPs in 2025
January 13-17, 2025: This year’s Heckerling Institute on Estate Planning includes a session featuring Natalie Reitman-White on using purpose trusts for business succession
February 3-4: NCEO hosts Is an ESOP Right for You? in Austin, Texas
February 20, 2025: Attend “The Employee Ownership Transition: A Deep Dive” a workshop on the process of selling to an employee ownership trust (in Scotland)
April 9-10 2025: The Aspen+Rutgers Employee Ownership Ideas Forum in Washington, DC. Tickets will be released via the Aspen EOP mailing list

🕰️ In Case You Missed It

Recent Events: Freedom Industries, an ESOP, posted a roundup of this months’s ESOP Employee Owned conference; see more at #EO24
- Rachel Eva Merfalen summarizes a recent Social Capital Partners panel, “Understanding Private Equity: Creating an economy we build up rather than buy out”
- Steve Storkan reflects on his meeting at The White House Executive Building to promote the power of employee ownership
Check out this episode of the Are We Here Yet podcast featuring Matt Cropp on employee ownership for the tech industry
- Similarly, Joshua Stern wants more entrepreneurs to build worker-first software cooperatives

EO+WD | Employee Ownership + Workplace Democracy