In the Press: Baby Boomer Retirement

Writing in the Detroit Free Press on November 12, John Gallagher's article Silver Tsunami: Retirements put boomer-owned firms at risk but worker ownership can help notes that as many as 400,000 jobs in the metro Detroit area could be at risk if baby boomers are not able to find a way for their businesses to continue after they retire. As an alternative, Gallagher tells the story of Russ Hart, who sold shares in the firm he founded, Arbor Assays, to the employees after the phrase "employee-owned" on a bottle of Harpoon beer got him thinking. He said:

My son is a pilot, my daughter is an attorney, and neither one of them wanted to take over this business. The other typical option for a company like this is to sell it. And in almost all of the sales of companies like that, we've seen the employees tend to get laid off and the whole atmosphere of the company changes dramatically. We didn't want to see that happen. So the idea of employee ownership seemed like a leap forward.