The last two years have been a challenge for all of us, and many challenges still remain. For those of us in the employee ownership community, there are numerous bright spots lighting our way to the employee ownership future, some of which include:

• Research showing that employee-owned companies have performed better through the COVID-19 crisis than their conventionally owned counterparts, tracking with what we saw through the Great Recession.
• Political and legislative initiatives supporting employee ownership gaining steam, at all levels of government, and all across the country. Employee ownership is increasingly being seen as good public policy.
• Rapid growth in the number of advocacy and support organizations working to deliver an employee ownership future. Just as importantly, we’re seeing greater collaboration between many of these organizations, realizing that we can grow the sector better when we work together.

We will be highlighting all of these positive developments, and addressing our remaining challenges, at our upcoming 36th Annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference on April 7, 2022. Our keynote speakers, Steve Storkan of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) and Jack Moriarty of Ownership America, will provide insight from the front lines of advocacy and support. Our 21 breakout sessions range from a full track of essential employee-owner education to panels for business owners exploring a sale to an ESOP, the latest technical updates, attracting and retaining employee owners, and how to make your employee-owned company worth working for. We certainly hope to see you there. 

I also look forward to seeing (and talking to) you at the NCEO Annual Conference from April 26 to 28 in Seattle—there has never been a better time to be a part of the employee ownership community, and every day we at the OEOC count ourselves lucky to play our part. But there is much more work to be done. Let’s get to work!