Corey Rosen
Clif Bar Employees Reap Windfall in Sale
Back in 2000, Clif Bar & Company owner Gary Erickson was offered $120 million by Quaker Oats to sell the company he started just eight years earlier. Erickson said the company was not for sale.
Employee Ownership Blog
Corey Rosen
Can ESOPs Help Recreate Social Trust in America?
America is facing a crisis of social trust. Measure after measure confirms we increasingly don’t trust our institutions or each other. There are a lot of reasons for this, including people being less involved in group activities, the rise of the internet, cable news, and growing economic insecurity. This is all made worse by the fact that a tiny percentage of the population owns most of America, creating a sense among all sides that the system is just unfair.
Timothy Garbinsky
Learning About Employee Ownership from Those Who Made the Leap
I and my colleagues at the NCEO are big proponents of learning about something from those who have gone through it. What better way to get information on what something is like than to talk to somebody with real-world experience? It's all well and good to learn in other ways but, removed from a human perspective, it can all start to seem a bit theoretical.
Dallan Guzinski
Join the NCEO's Crash Course and Get a Head Start on Networking for Our 2022 Fall Forum!
The NCEO's 2022 Fall ESOP Forum is back in person this year, taking place in St. Louis, MO, on September 26-28. We are once again excited to bring everything we have learned over the past few years in the virtual space and continue to build on all the great work employee-owners have done to stay connected and engaged. If you and your colleagues would like to get a head start on networking and ESOP education before the Fall Forum, join the NCEO's Communications Committee Crash Course this summer, where you will join a series of sessions focused on ESOP education, employee engagement, and networking with fellow employee-owners across the country!
Corey Rosen
Update: New York Passes Bill to Allow Engineering, Architecture, and Land Survey Firms to Be Majority ESOP-Owned
Following a 63-0 vote in the New York Senate, the New York State Assembly passed S. 5261 with a 146-1 vote. The bill would allow majority-owned ESOPs to qualify under New York corporate practice rules for engineering, architectural, landscape architectural, or land survey firms if 75% or more of the company’s voting trustees or ESOP plan committee (often the board of directors) are members of the profession. The bill now heads to the Governor’s desk for signature.
Corey Rosen
Update: California Employee Ownership Bill Passes Senate Unanimously
Bill now moves to Assembly
California Senate Bill 1407, the Expanding Employee Ownership Act, has passed without dissent in the California Senate. As discussed in a previous post, this bill, if it becomes law, would be the most significant step forward by a state yet in promoting employee ownership. Introduced by Senator Josh Becker, the bill would provide outreach funding, access to transaction financing, and financial support for technical assistance for conversions to employee ownership. While the bill appears to have no opposition and has been endorsed by a wide variety of groups, letters to Assembly members in support of the bill would help move it forward. California legislation often serves as a model for other states, so its impact could well go beyond the state.
Chris Cooper, Michael Palmieri
Creating ESOP Champions Throughout Your Company
As trainers and educators, we at the OEOC spend a fair amount of time working with companies as we all try to unlock the secrets of building the ideal ownership culture. There is no magic elixir that, by just adding water, will build that ideal culture for you. But there are some best practices that can help, many of which we will cover at the upcoming OEOC/NCEO National Employee Owner Summit in Chicago on August 25–26, 2022.
Timothy Garbinsky
Reflections on Our 2022 Annual Conference: By the Numbers
Now that a month has passed since our annual conference in Seattle this past April, my colleagues and I have a renewed gratitude for just what it means to host these events. As you likely know, this past April saw us reunited with our members and the employee ownership community in Seattle for our first in-person conference since April 2019.
Corey Rosen
Bipartisan Senate Draft of New Bill Moves WORK Act Closer to Passage
The bill would create a major federal program to provide funding and support for state-level outreach and technical assistance for employee ownership