Club E will be joined by by Sue Crockett, Tony Wand, Kurt Uhlir, Kevin Weise, and Tim Foley to discuss ESOPs as an exit strategy.
Selling a company to an ESOP provides a retirement plan for employees which creates wealth equity while at the same time providing a succession planning tool for the selling owners. What else does an ESOP do? There may be favorable tax considerations for you as a seller and also as an ESOP. Employee owners tend to think differently when it comes to process improvement, cost containment and customer engagement activities which impact the bottom line. An ESOP’s culture is typically just different, better.
Learning Objective:
Understand the power of an ESOP to grow a company and the local economy
Learn how an acquisition by an ESOP creates more employee owners while at the same time providing an exit strategy for a small business owner concerned about their employees well being.
About Sue:
Sue is the Executive Director of the MN Center for Employee Ownership (MNCEO) a non-profit organization created to educate business owners, advisors, community leaders, and members of local and state government entities on the benefits of employee ownership via Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), Worker Owned Cooperatives, and Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs). It is the mission of the MNCEO to turn the state of Minnesota into a place where every working person can also be an employee owner.
About Tim:
Tim brings over 25 years’ experience in Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and Engineering of engineered electrical products. He has worked within several large manufacturing companies including General Electric, Rockwell Automation, and Danaher Corporation. Customer satisfaction in all our business lines and the growth that results are his primary focus. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a MBA from Indiana University.
About Kevin:
Kevin joined the First International Bank & Trust (FIBT) Enterprise Retirement Solutions Team in January 2020.
Kevin has over 40 years of retirement plan / institutional trust experience, prior to FIBT, Kevin was at Bremer Bank, where he was the Institutional Trust Group Lead for 14 years.
About Kurt:
Kurt Uhlir, founder, principal owner and President of Standby Power System Consultants, Inc. from 1997 until its acquisition by HM Cragg Co. in May 2017. Kurt now serves as Business Development Manager and Senior Technical Advisor for the Company. Kurt received a BS in Electrical Engineering and Technology from Southern Illinois University in 1981. For the past 40 years, he has specialized in stationary battery, dc power system and energy storage design, installation, maintenance and testing for electric utility, communications, industrial, UPS, mission critical sites and renewable energy applications.
About Tony:
Tony was a CPA (inactive) by trade. Big 8 public accounting in the 1980’s with KPMG. CFO, COO and now CEO in distribution, consulting, manufacturing and civil engineering companies over a 36-year career. Focus on process improvement, information reporting and strategic growth.
