Loren Rodgers
NCEO Board Election Opens January 7
The election for the NCEO’s board of directors opens on January 7, 2025, for three-year terms that begin on April 1, 2025.
Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen
ESOP Pioneer Robert Smiley Dies at 81
Robert Smiley, one of the pioneers of ESOPs, died at the age of 81 on November 13, 2024. Bob was a past president of the ESOP Association and was instrumental in its foundation. He was an early and generous supporter of the NCEO and served on our board for several years.
He was the founder and board chair of the Benefit Capital Group, an ESOP banking and advisory firm. He formed Benefit Capital, Inc., which provided advice to ESOP deals worth over $5 billion over 30 years. He was also a contributing author to the NCEO’s Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance, which was published from 1989 to 2010, and was the managing editor of Employee Stock Ownership Plans: ESOP Planning, Financing, Implementation, Law and Taxation, a definitive publication on ESOP legal, financial, and administrative issues. It was updated annually until 2013.
Mr. Smiley also served on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension and was a trustee for the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, for nine years. He also served in the Navy. Bob was a key player in the development of the NCEO and ESOPs, and we will all miss him.
Madelyn Hammack
Expanding ESOPs Launches Its Ask an ESOP Expert Q&A Series
Expanding ESOPs, a new coalition formed to encourage more employee stock ownership as a viable path to bring new vitality to the American economy, has just launched its Ask an ESOP Expert Q&A series on LinkedIn.
Corey Rosen
Rep. Foxx Says DOL Abused Its Authority in Sharing Information with Plaintiffs’ Attorney
In a strongly worded letter, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC, chair of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, says that the Department of Labor (DOL) abused its authority when it shared information from an ongoing investigation of Envision Radiology's ESOP with the law firm Cohen Milstein, which is acting as the counsel for the plaintiffs in an ESOP valuation lawsuit against the trustee, selling shareholders, and individuals at the company. Foxx called on the DOL’s Office of the Inspector General to investigate certain practices concerning “secretly sharing confidential information with a plaintiffs’ attorney for use against plan fiduciaries.”
Liza Shifrin
2024 Executive and Board Comp Survey Results Now Available
The 2024 ESOP Executive and Board Compensation Survey report is now available. Thank you to all of the survey respondents for making this survey possible.
Nancy Wiefek
2024 Employee Ownership 100: Largest ESOP Companies Listed
We've just released this year's EO 100, our annual list of the largest broad-based employee-owned companies in the US. Most are ESOP-owned, and one is a cooperative. To be on the list, companies must be at least 50% employee-owned; most on the list are 100%. Collectively, these broad-based plans cover over 655,000 people.
Corey Rosen
IRS Announces 2025 COLA Plan Limits
On November 1, the IRS announced its annual cost-of-living allowance (COLA) increases to plan limits for 2025, which are provided in detail in Notice 2024-80 (PDF). The most important figures for ESOPs are:
Madelyn Hammack
Democracy at Work Institute Releases Its 2023 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report
The Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) recently released its 2023 Worker Cooperative State of the Sector Report. The report, which covers two years of business progress among worker-owned and democratic workplaces in the US, takes into account the latest developments in the worker cooperative space and aims to increase understanding of the sector as a whole.
Corey Rosen
New Research and Employment Opportunities in Employee Ownership
New Fellowships Available in Employee Ownership Research
The Institute for Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University will offer approximately 10 competitive research fellowships for the 2025–2026 academic year. Several $50,000, $25,000, and $10,000 fellowships will be offered. The deadline for applications is March 31, 2025.