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Schneider Electric, a 130,000-employee multinational company, is offering employees an opportunity to borrow money to buy shares. The loans come from a bank, but the arrangements were made by the company. For each share an employee buys, nine more are purchased on the employee's behalf.

The Main Street Employee Ownership Act became law as part of the John S. McCain National Defense Authorization Act, signed by President Trump on August 13. The bill has been covered by a number of news organizations, including the following:

On July 5, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story about Soria Moria, an employee-owned hotel in Cambodia, just outside the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

Previous installments of this column have reported on the backdating scandal, in which many companies are being scrutinized for grants of stock options that were either recorded as being granted at a prior date when the stock price was especially low ("backdating") or granted just before favorabl

In its January 31 issue, the Western Farm Press raises an all-too-common issue: "One of the complaints that dairy owners often have about employees is ... they don't take ownership in the operation.

The announcement starts, "The brewers at Harpoon Brewery and Odell Brewing Co. brew like they own the place—because they do own the place." The two ESOP-owned breweries announced that they are collaborating to release a seasonal beer—EHOP—that celebrates hops, oats...and employee ownership.

Long-standing research suggests that the combination of employee ownership and participative management results in better-than-expected company performance.

In "Why Executive Pay is Failing" in the June 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review, NCEO member Stephen O'Byrne of Shareholder Advisor Services and S. David Young, an accounting professor in France and Singapore, present a new take on problems with pay at the top.

At our annual conference in April 2011, I will step down as executive director of the NCEO, a post I will have held at that point for over 30 years. I will not, however, be retiring from the NCEO. I plan to continue to work here for what I hope will be many more years.

More than 500 people gathered in Salt Lake City for the NCEO's Fall ESOP Forum last week, an increase of more than 45% over last year. The NCEO staff who were there thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the attendees, and we were thrilled by people's energy, enthusiasm, and eagerness to share ideas.