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Employee Ownership Blog

Corey Rosen

Trustee Litigation Risks in Ongoing ESOPs Are Very Low

A new NCEO analysis of ESOP litigation in closely held companies over the last 10 years shows that of 74 lawsuits involving trustees, 54 were for issues dealing with a transaction. The large majority of these concerned the ESOP’s initial purchase of shares from a seller, with the remainder dealing with either a second-stage transaction (1 lawsuit) or the sale of the company (5 lawsuits).



Loren Rodgers

New Resources Added to the Board Excellence Toolkit

Following its launch on September 23, the response to the NCEO’s members-only board excellence toolkit and candidate directory has been wonderful. If you haven’t taken a look yet, the toolkit has best practices, data, and sample documents to help your company build or maintain a high-achieving board of directors, especially with regard to independent directors.


Corey Rosen

Grassroots EO Organization Launches: Ownership America

Jack Moriarty has announced the launch of Ownership America, a “public policy and grassroots advocacy organization founded to turn Americans into owners.” Founded by Jack Moriarty, who is now its director, Ownership America’s first efforts will focus on generating policy proposals and grassroots initiatives to help grow employee ownership. The first two projects include putting an advisory referendum urging support for employee ownership on the ballot in Massachusetts and drafting proposed legislation to create an Employee Equity Investment Act. The proposal would create Employee Equity Investment Corporations (EEICs), entities designed to help fund middle-market ESOP transactions. EEICs would function much like Small Business Investment Companies. EEICs would “deploy a combination of privately raised capital and federal loan guarantees to make a range of subordinated debt and equity-like investments in eligible businesses. EEICs would provide subordinated ‘first dollars in’ to a deal—funds that serve the same function as equity in the eyes of other lenders.” A number of legislators have already expressed interest in the idea.



Dallan Guzinski

Survey Your Employee-Owners with a Little Help from Your Friends!

When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. This networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive. 


Dallan Guzinski

Join Me This Fall for the Communications Committee Crash Course

A number of companies have reported that their communications and the efforts of their employee-driven committees have actually increased and become more frequent throughout the pandemic. Committees are at the forefront of new education and employee engagement initiatives, and many committee members are doing all of this for the first time. Companies are looking for more ways to virtually connect with employees as well as other ESOP companies, and we are helping to foster these connections online once more this fall!


NCEO

Survey Your Employees with a Little Help from Your Friends!

When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. The networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive. 


Dallan Guzinski

Survey Employees with a Little Help from Your Friends!

When employee-owned businesses openly share their best practices or approaches to employee engagement and communication, it’s not lost on those attending our conferences for the first time. Some of the best ideas or solutions attendees get from our conferences come directly from other employee-owners and ESOP companies. The networking and collaboration is a huge part of why so many employee-owned businesses thrive.