Corey Rosen
The appropriation bill passed by the House lacks funding for state employee ownership offices authorized by the WORK Act, but the Senate Appropriations Committee is recommending an initial $2 million for 2025 to help fund them. The committee also urged the Department of Labor (DOL) to finalize its ESOP valuation regulations.
Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks
This September in Indianapolis, I’ll have the honor of joining Jen Briggs on the Fall Forum main stage for our keynote conversation, “Brewing Potential: Leadership Strategies for Employee-Owned Businesses.” Jen is an insightful and experienced leader, and we will present a candid “beer with the boss”-style keynote focused on building effective leadership that prioritizes high-performance culture. As we start our engines and prepare to #racetoIndy, I’d like to share a few of the landmark themes Jen and I plan to explore in the keynote.
Madelyn Hammack
On July 25, the National Economic Council (NEC) hosted a meeting on employee ownership in the White House compound that gathered representatives from federal agencies, legislative offices, and the employee ownership community, including the NCEO’s Loren Rodgers. As Joseph Blasi, speaking as a representative of the Treasury Department, noted, never before has a presidential administration hosted such a prominent inter-agency meeting on employee ownership.
Corey Rosen
The comment period for a proposed Department of Defense (DOD) rule allowing 100% ESOP-owned companies to receive sole source follow-on contracts ends on July 29.
Madelyn Hammack
The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) has announced a significant collaboration with the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) to foster employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) across the state. This partnership aims to create educational and informational programs to increase the number of New Jersey businesses implementing the ESOP model. Professor Bill Castellano, Executive Director of the New Jersey/New York Center for Employee Ownership, will be leading the charge. “A large percentage of retiring business owners have few succession plan options, and don’t realize they can sell the company to their employees instead of closing up shop,” he said. “Employee ownership strategies save jobs and help to keep the business and the local economy going.”
Loren Rodgers
With the appointment of an experienced worker ownership professional, Hilary Abell, as the division chief of the Division of Employee Ownership, the federal government now has a full-time staff member dedicated to helping employers and employees learn about employee ownership.
Corey Rosen
The North Carolina legislature has passed and the governor has signed S. 802 (PDF), an infrastructure finance bill that also includes an unrelated provision allowing ESOPs in which at least 51% of the participants are “minority persons or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals” to qualify for the state’s historically underutilized business set-aside program. The law states that “an ESOP company applying for certification as a historically underutilized business shall provide an attestation that it meets the requirements of this subdivision together with such documentation supporting the attestation as may be required by the Secretary." The law became effective on July 1, 2024.
Nancy Wiefek
A rigorous new study conducted by Dr. James Hasik on behalf of the Employee-Owned Contractors Roundtable provides more evidence of the particular, positive impact of ESOP firms on company performance and resiliency.
Lindsay Isaac
This June marked the one-year anniversary of The Download, a monthly NCEO member resource designed to help improve education and engagement at employee-owned companies. To commemorate, we've put together a "yearbook" to highlight the resources that have been distributed so far. The Download has covered a variety of topics in its first year, including the ESOP landscape, ESOP nuts and bolts, and ESOP culture.
