Timothy Garbinsky
Apis & Heritage Capital Partners has been named the recipient of a Skoll Foundation Award for Social Innovation. The award, which includes a $2 million prize, "shines a light on the extraordinary leaders and organizations advancing transformational social change to create a more sustainable, peaceful, and prosperous world for all," according to a recent press release for the award.
Timothy Garbinsky
Rutgers University just launched the University Consortium on Employee Share Ownership, which is "dedicated to fostering collaboration among university-based initiatives that advance the study and practice of employee share ownership." In a press release from October 22, the school's Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing announced that, in convening 12 universities for this express purpose, it has created the first higher education network in the employee ownership space.
Timothy Garbinsky
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.
Timothy Garbinsky
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.
Timothy Garbinsky
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.
Timothy Garbinsky
Increasingly, private equity (PE) is becoming a bigger part of American life through its unceasing ability to acquire businesses across all sectors of American life. Operating on the principle of aggressive growth, PE firms often seek to maximize their investment by ruthlessly cutting costs wherever possible while trying to, at a minimum, sustain their revenue, meaning that companies often end up charging the same or more for their goods or services while their quality declines. The inevitable outcomes in these situations are concerning enough in the publishing and entertainment industries, but what happens when the service that's replaced is essential and life-saving healthcare?
Timothy Garbinsky
On April 2, Harvard Social Impact Review published the article “Rethinking Ownership: Putting Purpose at the Center,” which explores trust ownership, including employee ownership trusts and perpetual purpose trusts (EOTs and PPTs respectively). The authors, Jenny Everett, Mark Hand, and Natalie Reitman-White, note the growth in the number of companies using this form and also suggest that given the still-small size of the field, "now is the time to invest in the field-building infrastructure necessary to develop and scale the purpose trust ownership legal form."
Timothy Garbinsky
Following the lead of Colorado and Washington State, New Jersey appears to be mulling a potential state program for employee ownership. Today, the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) issued a formal Request for Information on developing a program, seeking insight from individuals and firms alike on what such a program might look like. The interest in employee ownership was spurred by the Governor's Wealth Disparity Task Force, which highlighted employee ownership as a potential initiative on which to focus.
Timothy Garbinsky
Last September, we had the privilege of seeing Gina Schaefer, the founder of ESOP-owned A Few Cool Hardware Stores, deliver the keynote address at our 2023 Fall Forum in Houston. Her story of how her company exceeded its promise of being a mere place of commerce, turning into a hub for the communities in which it resides, was inspiring. Even before becoming employee-owned, Gina's stores became essential fixtures for the locals and employees alike, and the ESOP only strengthened their impact. Her talk was vulnerable, witty, intelligent, and moving, and a great reminder of why we do the work that we do.
