Board of Directors

Howard L. Kaplan is founder of Kaplan Fiduciary Group, a nationally recognized governance advisor, corporate director, and fiduciary expert. He advises boards and ESOP trustees, serves as a federal fiduciary process expert, and frequently teaches governance and fiduciary practices at UC San Diego and Kent State.

Daniel Goldstein has 25+ years of managing and advising companies and other organizations, including business strategy, acquisitions, direct investments, portfolio design, building teams, culture, and purpose-driven philanthropy—spanning several continents, many jurisdictions, and multiple languages. At the end of 2023, Daniel retired as CEO of Folience, a 100% ESOP-owned holding company. He has served on the board of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) and The ESOP Association, as well as the executive committee of the Employee Ownership Foundation. Daniel is an executive fellow at the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing and a fellow at the UK-based Ownership at Work think tank.

Susan Kildahl is an experienced finance and governance executive with extensive leadership in ESOP-owned organizations. She serves as executive advisor and is a member of the board of directors for NHS Northstar, Inc., where she previously served as chief financial officer and interim chief executive officer. She played a central leadership role in NHS Northstar's transition to employee ownership in 2017 and helped guide the organization through a period of significant growth, strategic expansion, and operational transformation. 

Through that experience, Susan developed a commitment to helping ESOP companies strengthen governance, strategic leadership, and employee ownership beyond the transaction. She champions a comprehensive approach to employee ownership that aligns governance, financial stewardship, strategic leadership, and employee engagement to create resilient organizations and long-term enterprise value.

Linshuang (pronounced “Lin-Shang”) Lu is a managing principal at Praxis Consulting Group. She has 20 years experience providing organization development, strategic planning, leadership development, and culture change services to employee-owned companies and nonprofits. She helps organizations develop their leaders and foster deeper staff engagement in order to create better workplaces and achieve greater impact. Linshuang regularly speaks and writes on topics related to employee ownership culture, leadership development, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Linshuang is a core faculty member of the ESOP CEO Leadership Program at the Center for Social Impact Strategy at the University of Pennsylvania. Linshuang holds a master of science in organization development from American University.

Donald Romine is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Web Industries, a leading advanced manufacturing and contract converting company serving customers in healthcare, aerospace, industrial, and consumer markets. During his 45-year career with the company, he held leadership positions spanning manufacturing operations, plant management, executive leadership, and corporate governance. He served as chief executive officer from 1991 to 2018 and as chairman from 2018 to 2023. Under Mr. Romine's leadership, Web Industries experienced sustained growth, expanded its manufacturing capabilities and geographic presence, strengthened long-standing customer partnerships, and successfully transitioned to a 100% employee-owned (ESOP) company. Throughout his tenure, he championed a culture of operational excellence, continuous improvement, servant leadership, and respect for the inherent worth and development of every employee-owner.

Mr. Romine brings extensive experience in strategic planning, corporate governance, organizational development, succession planning, family business leadership, capital investment, and long-term value creation. His leadership philosophy emphasizes building enduring organizations through principled decision making, strong customer relationships, and investment in people. Since retiring from executive leadership, Mr. Romine has remained active as a board director, advisor, and mentor, drawing on more than five decades of manufacturing and business leadership to assist organizations facing growth, governance, leadership transition, and strategic planning opportunities.

Corey Rosen, PhD, is the cofounder and senior staff member of the NCEO. He co-authored, along with John Case and Martin Staubus, Equity: Why Employee Ownership Is Good for Business (Harvard Business School Press, May 2005) and, with John Case, Ownership: Reinventing Companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What (Berrett-Kohler, 2022). He has written, edited, or contributed to dozens of books, articles, and research papers on employee ownership. He is generally regarded as the leading expert on employee ownership in the world. Rosen received his PhD in political science from Cornell University in 1973, after which he taught politics at Ripon College in Wisconsin before being named an American Political Science Association congressional fellow in 1975. He worked on Capitol Hill for the next five years, where he helped initiate and draft legislation on ESOPs and employee ownership. In 1981, he formed the NCEO. He serves on seven ESOP company boards.