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Employee Ownership Blog

NCEO

Is an ESOP right for you? Seminar Sweeps into Nashville

The next Is an ESOP Right for You? seminar is coming soon to Nashville, TN on July 29-30.  This two-day event is designed for companies considering a transition to employee ownership.  Over the course of two days, attendees will have the opportunity to meet with existing ESOP companies, expert service providers and staff from the NCEO and Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) to learn more about employee ownership as a whole, the mechanics of setting up an ESOP including, feasibility, transaction structure, tax implications and more, as well as explore alternatives to an ESOP. The meeting will consist of both interactive roundtable discussions as well as presenter led content, with plenty of opportunities for Q&A. 

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Loren Rodgers

Assistant Secretary of Labor Gomez: Employee Ownership Is Life-Changing

On April 30, 2024, Assistant Secretary of Labor Lisa M. Gomez spoke at the NCEO’s annual conference in Tampa, Florida. Assistant Secretary Gomez leads the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA). As the head of EBSA, she is at the center of some of the most important decisions affecting ESOPs and employee ownership. 

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Corey Rosen

Spate of Lawsuits Challenges ESOP Cash Investment Policy

In the last three months, four lawsuits have been filed against ESOP companies for imprudently investing their cash assets in low-yield investments. These are the first lawsuits ever filed on this topic. The suits are at ESOP companies Aluminum Precision Products, Pride Mobility Products Corp., Aerotech Inc., and Wilson Electric Services Corp. and all were filed by the same law firm, Engstrom Lee.

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Liza Shifrin

Updated State-Specific Resources for Current and Prospective ESOPs

At the 2024 NCEO Annual Conference earlier this month, one of the questions I heard most often from attendees was "where can I find state-specific ESOP information?" Whether you’re a current ESOP and looking to connect with other employee-owned companies in your state, or you’re ESOP-curious and searching for statistics on your state’s ESOP breakdown, the NCEO is here to help.

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Loren Rodgers

Private Equity Giant Blackstone Commits to Employee Stock Grants

On May 21, the Wall Street Journal reported that the alternative asset manager Blackstone would grant equity to the 18,000 employees at its portfolio company Copeland (alternative non-paywalled version at MSN). The Journal article states that under a new initiative Blackstone plans to announce this week, the practice of broad-based ownership interests for employees will apply “to all new deals going forward in which its private-equity business buys control of a company.”

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Timothy Garbinsky

Employee Ownership, Corey Rosen Featured on Freakonomics Podcast

Following hot on the heels of the 60 Minutes episode this past weekend, employee ownership was the focal point of a recent episode of the popular podcast Freakonomics. Titled "Should Companies Be Owned By Their Workers?," the episode puts host Stephen J. Dubner in conversation with NCEO founder Corey Rosen as well as KKR's Pete Stavros and the Democracy Collaborative's Marjorie Kelly.

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Timothy Garbinsky

DAWI's Melissa Hoover to Keynote Upcoming Vermont Conference

Our friends at the Vermont Employee Ownership Center are hosting their 22nd annual conference in a few short weeks, on May 31 at the University of Vermont's Davis Center. The event, as usual, promises to be an enriching experience for employee-owned businesses of all types, with sessions on recruitment and retention, ESOP transactions, worker cooperative buyouts, mental health, board composition, and more. There will also be networking for worker coops, ESOP companies, and other employee-owned businesses.

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Timothy Garbinsky

Private Equity Continues to Make Inroads into the Employee Ownership Space

Since as far back as at least 2017, we've long been tracking the increased activity of private equity firms in the employee ownership space. Their foray into the world of ESOPs, broad-based equity, stock purchase plans, and the like, is, by now, somewhat old hat, but that doesn't stop it from being a frequent point of conversation, even contention, in employee ownership circles. But the fact remains that, no matter how you feel about their motivations or their methods, they are here, as evidenced by a feature on KKR, Pete Stavros, and Ownership Works on tonight's episode of 60 Minutes.

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