Corey Rosen
New US Senate Bills Would Encourage ESOPs
Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA), chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, just introduced two bills to encourage ESOPs.
Employee Ownership Blog
Eva Lianos
Announcing the 2025 NCEO Forum Keynote Speaker, Guy Raz
The National Center for Employee Ownership is thrilled to announce that renowned journalist, podcast host, and bestselling author Guy Raz will deliver the keynote address at the 2025 NCEO Forum at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. As the author of How I Built This, Raz brings a wealth of knowledge on entrepreneurship, innovation, and business growth that perfectly aligns with the employee ownership community's vision. Guy Raz has interviewed hundreds of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and innovators, documenting their triumphs, failures, and pivotal moments that transformed their businesses. His unique ability to extract profound insights from these stories has earned him international acclaim and a devoted following. What makes Raz's approach particularly relevant to the employee ownership community is his focus on the human elements of business success—resilience, collaboration, shared purpose, and long-term thinking—values that are fundamental to thriving employee-owned companies.
Timothy Garbinsky
Oregon Bill Would Give ESOPs Public Procurement Preference
A new bill in the Oregon state legislature would give employee-owned businesses a purchasing preference for public contracting. HB 3646, which is sponsored by Representative Thủy Trần (D), alongside Representatives Andersen (D), Marsh (D) and Neron (D), and Senators Patterson (D), Sollman (D), and Weber (R), adds entities in which employees own at least 50% of the business (either directly or through an ESOP) to the list of preferred sources for public contracts, allowing them to receive the same preference currently given to benefit companies. This permits state agencies to select their bids even if they cost up to 5% more than the lowest bid from a non-preferred business. A work session for the bill is currently on the agenda of the May 13 meeting of the Oregon Senate Committee on Labor and Business.
Corey Rosen
NCEO Paper Compares Employee Ownership Models in Five Countries
A new NCEO paper, Expanding Employee Ownership: Models in the US, UK, Canada, France, and Slovenia (PDF; also see the embedded version below), explores the five leading models for trust-based employee ownership. Research and experience show that holding employee ownership in a trust, rather than individually owning shares, tends to be the most sustainable form of employee ownership. Companies generally need tax or other incentives to create and fund the plans for employee ownership to grow. Also, employee ownership is more likely to be widely adopted in forms that are funded in whole or in part by the company, rather than just by employees. These five models are the only legislatively supported models that combine all these features.
Corey Rosen
American Ownership and Resilience Act Introduced in Congress
Bill relaunches last Congress’s Employee Equity Investment Act under Commerce Department
Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) (press release) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) and U.S. Representatives Blake Moore (R-UT) and Lori Trahan (D-MA) have introduced the American Ownership and Resilience Act (Senate and House bill PDFs), a relaunch of the Employee Equity Investment Act of 2023 (EEIA) introduced in the last Congress. The legislation is cosponsored in the Senate by Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Todd Young (R-IN), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Peter Welch (D-VT). In the House, it is cosponsored by Representatives Dusty Johnson (R-SD) (press release) and Bill Foster (D-IL). It has not yet been assigned a bill number.
Corey Rosen
New Maryland Law Lets Cannabis Businesses Have ESOPs
Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed legislation allowing cannabis businesses in the state to be owned by ESOPs. Under prior law, licenses to sell cannabis could not be transferred for five years, and then only under certain circumstances. The new law, SB-215, is a set of cannabis reform provisions that includes one allowing an exception to this rule when a cannabis licensee sells to an ESOP (see page 11 of this PDF). There are a handful of cannabis businesses with ESOPs in other parts of the US. For businesses that are large enough and profitable enough to have an ESOP, it can help avoid some of the particularly onerous tax obligations that cannabis companies can face.
Corey Rosen
Bipartisan Group Introduces Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2025
House Ways and Means Committee chair Mike Kelly (R-PA) and committee member Jimmy Panetta (D-CA) have introduced the Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2025. The proposal does not yet have a bill number. The bill was introduced with six cosponsors equally split between both parties. The bill is identical to S. 2515 in the last Congress.
Corey Rosen
Could a New Supreme Court Decision Make It Easier to Sue ESOPs?
ESOP legal experts suspect that the recent unanimous Supreme Court decision in Cunningham v. Cornell University, No. 23-1007 (U.S. Apr. 17, 2025) will make it easier for plaintiffs to file lawsuits against ESOP fiduciaries. The issue in Cornell related to ERISA’s prohibited transaction provisions and the many statutory exemptions. Under ERISA, fiduciaries are prohibited from causing plans to engage in transactions with parties in interest, subject to exemptions, including the adequate consideration exemption that authorizes ESOP stock transactions in employer stock. The question in Cornell was whether plaintiffs could adequately plead a violation of ERISA’s prohibited transaction provisions by simply stating that a transaction with a party in interest occurred, or whether plaintiffs must also plead that an exemption does not apply. Federal circuit courts have been split on this question, with some holding that plaintiffs had to plead facts to plausibly state that an exemption did not apply and others holding that plaintiffs do not have to address the exemptions. In Allen v. GreatBanc (7th Cir. 2016), the Seventh Circuit held that the plaintiffs stated a plausible breach of ERISA’s prohibited transaction provisions merely by alleging that the ESOP’s stock value dropped after the sale, that the ESOP transaction was financed by the seller, and that the loan’s interest rate was high. The Seventh Circuit did not require the plaintiffs to plead the absence of any prohibited transaction exemptions.
Jaymie Oviedo
Behind the Scenes: Directing the Record-Breaking 2025 NCEO Conference
As the event director for this year's Annual Employee Ownership Conference, I've finally caught my breath after what can only be described as our most successful gathering yet. Our 43rd Annual Conference brought us to Salt Lake City for the first time, where we welcomed a record-breaking 2,173 attendees!