Loren Rodgers
Following its launch on September 23, the response to the NCEO’s members-only board excellence toolkit and candidate directory has been wonderful. If you haven’t taken a look yet, the toolkit has best practices, data, and sample documents to help your company build or maintain a high-achieving board of directors, especially with regard to independent directors.
Corey Rosen
Jack Moriarty has announced the launch of Ownership America, a “public policy and grassroots advocacy organization founded to turn Americans into owners.” Founded by Jack Moriarty, who is now its director, Ownership America’s first efforts will focus on generating policy proposals and grassroots initiatives to help grow employee ownership. The first two projects include putting an advisory referendum urging support for employee ownership on the ballot in Massachusetts and drafting proposed legislation to create an Employee Equity Investment Act. The proposal would create Employee Equity Investment Corporations (EEICs), entities designed to help fund middle-market ESOP transactions. EEICs would function much like Small Business Investment Companies. EEICs would “deploy a combination of privately raised capital and federal loan guarantees to make a range of subordinated debt and equity-like investments in eligible businesses. EEICs would provide subordinated ‘first dollars in’ to a deal—funds that serve the same function as equity in the eyes of other lenders.” A number of legislators have already expressed interest in the idea.
Loren Rodgers
The NCEO's board excellence toolkit and candidate directory launched on September 23, 2021, during the Fall ESOP Forum.
Dallan Guzinski
When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. This networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive.
Dallan Guzinski
A number of companies have reported that their communications and the efforts of their employee-driven committees have actually increased and become more frequent throughout the pandemic. Committees are at the forefront of new education and employee engagement initiatives, and many committee members are doing all of this for the first time. Companies are looking for more ways to virtually connect with employees as well as other ESOP companies, and we are helping to foster these connections online once more this fall!
NCEO
When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. The networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive.
Dallan Guzinski
When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. The networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive.
Loren Rodgers
Long-time ESOP-owned company Clif Bar is running a one-minute advertisement during the 2021 World Series that prominently features Clif Bar's employee-owners showing pride in their product and their company, and introducing themselves and their coworkers as employee-owners.
Corey Rosen
We've just released this year's EO 100, our annual list of the largest 100 companies that are owned by an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) or similar plan or, less commonly, where a majority of the employees directly own a majority of the shares. The largest company on the list is Publix Super Markets with 207,000 employees; the smallest companies on the list have 1,300 employees. The list shows that employee ownership is not a fringe economic phenomenon but rather an important part of the US economy.
