Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen

Corey Rosen

Minnesota Bill Would Provide Low-Interest Loans for Employee Ownership

HF 3733, a bill to help build community wealth in Minnesota, would create a low-interest loan program to support employee ownership, community land trusts, or cooperatives focused on providing wealth-building opportunities for historically disadvantaged groups, including people of color, women, disabled veterans, and low-income workers. The state would appropriate $15 million in 2023 to provide grants to partner organizations to make the loans, which would be priced at not more than the prime rate. State support for the loan could be for up to $2.5 million. Eligible borrowers must be able to show the project could not be financed without this support. Up to 10% of the funds could be used for technical assistance. Half the principal payments would go to a community wealth-building account the state would create to provide ongoing funding.

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Corey Rosen

Why Strong Leaders Can Make Very Bad—and Even Deadly—Decisions

One of the great paradoxes of leadership is that the very qualities that might make someone likely to become a leader of a company—or a nation—can be the very same qualities that can lead to some very bad decisions. Rising to the top usually takes a lot of self-confidence and the ability to make good decisions about a lot of things quickly. But that same self-confidence can turn to arrogance, an arrogance that may discourage those working with you to challenge your assumptions, ideas, and even what you perceive as facts. 

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Corey Rosen

The Conference Turns 40!

This year’s NCEO Annual Employee Ownership Conference (April 26–28, with a preconference on April 25) is sure to be a special one. It's not only because it marks the first time the conference will be live and in-person in three years or because it marks our return to the West Coast, taking place in the Seattle convention center after nearly a decade in other time zones. And it's not only because we’ll have boatloads of fun new additions like the puppy lounge.

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Corey Rosen

Congress Makes 100% ESOPs Eligible for Sole-Source Follow-on Awards

The National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by President Biden on December 27 contains the first-ever government contracting program to specifically encourage ESOPs. Section 874 of the new law creates a Department of Defense pilot program that would allow companies that are or become 100% ESOP-owned to receive noncompete follow-on contracts for the work. The award would be contingent on a finding that the contractor’s performance was satisfactory or better. The program will run for five years, and the Government Accountability Office is required to provide an assessment of it within three years of the program’s enactment.

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Corey Rosen

State Small Business Credit Initiative Program Now Allows Funding for Employee Ownership

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (P.L. 117-2) included an appropriation of $10 billion for another round of funding for the State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI), a program that has been in place since 2010. SSBCI funds might make it easier for lenders to ESOPs to provide larger and less collateralized ESOP loans or for mezzanine lenders to loan at lower rates.

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Corey Rosen

Trustee Litigation Risks in Ongoing ESOPs Are Very Low

A new NCEO analysis of ESOP litigation in closely held companies over the last 10 years shows that of 74 lawsuits involving trustees, 54 were for issues dealing with a transaction. The large majority of these concerned the ESOP’s initial purchase of shares from a seller, with the remainder dealing with either a second-stage transaction (1 lawsuit) or the sale of the company (5 lawsuits).

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