Owners at Work

In this episode we speak with Jonathan Welle of Cleveland Owns and Ellen Vera of Co-op Cincy – two Ohio-based nonprofits that are working around cooperative development and community wealth building. We dig into how both Jonathan and Ellen began working on cooperative development, mission of vision of their organizations, and talk about programs and initiatives they are currently working on to build community and worker owned enterprises

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.

GUEST INFO :

• Jonathan Welle: https://www.clevelandowns.coop/our-team-1/jonathan-welle
• Ellen Vera: https://coopcincy.org/staff-and-board

Ohio Worker-Ownership Network (OWN)

• Website: https://www.oeockent.org/the-ohio-worker-ownership-network
• Past episodes: https://www.oeockent.org/owners-at-work-podcast/season-2-episode-10-employee-ownership-updates-taking-stock-and-looking-forward

Owners at Work is back for season 3! In our first episode of this season we speak with Steve Storkan, Executive Director of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX) - a national nonprofit focused on establishing and supporting a network of independent nonprofit State Centers for Employee Ownership. We talk about the steady growth in number of state centers since EOX's founding, the importance of being open to all forms of employee-ownership, successful strategies to engage public officials and economic development professionals, and much more. SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.

GUEST INFO : Steve Storkan

• Bio: https://eoxnetwork.org/who-we-are/
• Email: [email protected]

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at [email protected]

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going

2022 Annual Conference - https://www.oeockent.org/resources-events/annual-ohio-employee-ownership-conference

SUMMARY: In the US there are over 14 million employee-owners working at 7,000 companies. Yet, the sector still has enormous potential to grow. In this episode we speak with Chris Fredericks, CEO of Empowered Ventures and Tim Rettig CEO of InTrust IT, both of whom are focused on growing the employee ownership sector through acquisitions of other mid-market companies. Together both Chris and Tim have acquired 7 companies in the last 5 years creating hundreds of new employee owners, and they are only getting started. We talk about what drove both Tim and Chris to adopt the models they have, the mechanics of the deals, and how they have approached culture building in companies that are diverse in both geographic location and industry.

GUEST INFO :

Tim Rettig, CEO InTrust IT

• Bio/Contact: https://www.intrust-it.com/tim-rettig/

Chris Fredericks, CEO Empowered Ventures

• Bio/Contact: https://empowered.ventures/chris-fredericks/

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at [email protected]

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going

SUMMARY: In this episode we take stock of employee ownership developments in Ohio and discuss how covid has impacted businesses and employee-owned companies from a macroeconomic perspective. First, Mike Palmieri trades in his co-host hat and becomes a guest as he discusses two new reports published by the OEOC - Building Legacies and the Ohio Top 50 ESOP Companies. In the second segment we sit down with past OAW guests Eric Flickinger and Matthew Silla of Apple Growth partners to revisit our pre-covid 2020 discussion and discuss supply chain issues, inflation, how these and other trends are affecting employee-owned companies, and much more.

GUEST INFO :

Eric Flickinger, Apple Growth Partners

• Bio: https://www.applegrowth.com/employees/?smid=1672

Matt Silla, Apple Growth Partners

• Bio: https://www.applegrowth.com/employees/?smid=1702

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at [email protected]

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going

OEOC UPCOMING PROGRAMS

• Southwest Forum
• Communication Roundtables

SUMMARY: In this episode we speak with Eamon Muholland, Senior Consultant at Wise Consulting and current head of the company's communication committee. We discuss how the company, a relatively new ESOP, maintained its ownership culture through covid-19. We get into how to structure a communication committee in a company with a distributed workforce; the importance of maintaining a strong relationship between management and the communication committee; the power of peers in driving an ownership culture; how you can use technology to make a virtual annual meeting one for the history books, and much more.

GUEST INFO :

Eamon Mulholland, Senior Consultant, Wise Consulting.

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eamon-mulholland-90aa255/
• Email: [email protected]
• Company website: https://www.wiseconsulting.com/

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at [email protected]

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going

SUMMARY: Sometimes companies transition to employee ownership to help spark a transformation in workplace culture, in other cases a move to employee ownership is the continuation or next logical step in a vibrant company culture that already exists. A Few Cool Hardware Stores is firmly in the latter category. In this episode we speak with selling owner Gina Schaefer and a new employee-owner Courtney Belew about what transitioning to employee ownership was like for both a business owner and an employee, the importance of community engagement, and the benefits of building a strong workplace culture.

Guest Info

• Gina Schaefer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gina-schaefer-56380a8/
• Courtney Belew: https://www.linkedin.com/in/courtney-belew-18671665/#
• Company website: https://acehardwaredc.com/pages/contact-us

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at [email protected]

Repurchase obligations are a major component of ESOP administration and the main way in which employee-owners benefit from owning a financial stake in the companies they worked for. Yet, these obligations are often seen as a burden, and in some cases, can lead to the freezing or termination of the ESOP plan. In this episode we speak with Josh Young of UBS about how ESOP companies can rethink their approach to repurchase obligations in a way that reframes obligations as something to celebrate, rather than an administrative burden.

Guest Details

• Josh Young, UBS: https://advisors.ubs.com/joshua.m.young/

We Want To Hear From You!

• If you have an employee ownership story you want to tell send us an email at [email protected].

In the world of employee ownership, agreement has begun to crystalize around the idea that broad-based models of employee ownership, like ESOPs, worker cooperatives, or employee-owned trusts are powerful tools in the fight to reduce the enormous racial wealth gap in the United States. But exactly how would this happen? And what are the barriers that need to be overcome to truly expand employee ownership amongst business owners of color? In this episode we talk with Sean Tamba-Matthew, and advisor at SES ESOP strategies about how ESOPs can be used preserving minority owned legacy businesses in a way that provides wealth for selling business owners, employee-owners, and the surrounding community.

2021 OEOC Fall Programming

• https://www.oeockent.org/ohios-eo-network/virtual-programming

Sean Tamba-Matthew

• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sean-tamba/
• Email: [email protected]
• Article: https://generocity.org/philly/2021/05/27/reducing-racial-wealth-inequality-and-preserving-beacons-of-hope-through-employee-ownership/

We want to hear from you!!!

Contact us with your employee ownership story at [email protected]

In this episode we speak with President Pete Douglas and Executive VP Finance and Administration, David Brockbader of the The Douglas Company about their recent transition to employee ownership via an ESOP. The interview also includes Franco Silva, Director, Prairie Capital Advisors who was one of the main advisors for the transaction. In this episode we dig into the importance of preparing for a transition, lessons learned, and the often overlooked emotional side of selling a company.

UPCOMING OEOC PROGRAMS

For a full list of programs visit: https://www.oeockent.org/ohios-eo-network/virtual-programming

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!

Contact us if you have an employee ownership story to tell. Send an email to [email protected]

GUEST INFO

Pete Douglas and David Brockbader, The Douglas Company: https://www.douglascompany.com/about-us/

Franco Silva, Prairie Capital Advisors: https://www.prairiecap.com/team/franco-silva

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is something we hear a lot about, but what exactly do these terms mean, and what do they look like in an employee owned company? In this episode we sit down with Dr. Joy and Ty Miller of Carver & Associates to talk about some of the preconceived notions that surround DEI, ways in which these values can be put into practice, and what first steps individuals in both managerial and non-managerial roles can take to begin to learn more about DEI. One of the overarching themes of the conversation is that, much like models of employee ownership, efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion in your organization can help create a culture of accountability that improves individual's well-being and company performance.

We want to hear from you, and tell your employee ownership story!! Send an email to the OEOC at [email protected] Chris Cooper [email protected] or Mike Palmieri [email protected].

GUEST INFO

• Dr. Joy, President & CEO, Carver & Associates
• Ty Miller, Chief Operating Officer & Facilitator, Carver & Associates

RESOURCES

• Article - Leverage EVS Metrics To Improve Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Initiatives
• Video version of article