Recently Harpoon Brewery (www.harpoonbrewery.com) worked with other New England craft brewers and distillers to convert beer into hand sanitizer. Bret Keisling celebrates both Harpoon Brewery and its COVID-19 efforts. There's also an archive excerpt of Harpoon Brewery’s Aaron Moberger discussing the importance of employee ownership at Harpoon.

The transcript of this episode is available on our website at https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/110-beer-sanitizer-covid-19

Wawa and Sheetz are PA-based convenience store chains. Both have small ESOPs, and both are stepping up during the pandemic. Bret Keisling discusses Wawa's commitment to food pantries and Sheetz' pandemic pay raise for employees.

The transcript for this episode is available on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-80-sheetz-wawa-step-up

President Trump honored America's truckers in a recent White House ceremony. Honorees included Stephen Richardson, an employee-owner at Big G Express (www.biggexpress.com). Bret Keisling shares clips from the ceremony and explains why Big G's website is ESOP gold.

The video referenced in this podcast was streamed live on April 16th, 2020 in the public domain on the White House's official YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ff6XHUk_Qno?t=3052

The transcript and links for this podcast episode can be found our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-79-big-g-goes-to-washington

As the global pandemic continues to play out, we revisit the differences and similarities between internal and external trustees, explain inherent conflicts of interests faced by internal trustees, and why companies hesitate to retain external trustees. This excerpt is from Episode 26, which originally aired on March 19, 2018.

The full transcript for today's podcast is available on our website at: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/109-internal-external-trustees-revisited

NewAge Industries [www.newageindustries.com] is a PA-based 100% ESOP that specializes in fluid transfer, i.e., tubing and couplings etc. It provides essential COVID-19 components necessary for test kits, vaccine and therapeutics development, medical equipment such as ventilators and hospital beds, as well as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). CEO Ken Baker appeared on Episode 16 of The ESOP Podcast. We include an except describing New Age's path from a single shareholder distributor to an employee-owned manufacturer.

The article referenced in this podcast, "Sales are booming for Bucks manufacturer aiding coronavirus response," was written by John George and published in the Philadelphia Business Journal on April 10, 2020: https://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/news/2020/04/10/sales-are-booming-for-bucks-manufacturer-aiding.html

The full linked transcript of this episode can be found on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-78-newage-industries-an-essential-esop

Martin Staubus was our guest on Episode 19 of The ESOP Podcast. In this excerpt from January 2018, Martin joins host Bret Keisling and shares how The Beyster Institute (https://rady.ucsd.edu/centers/beyster/) came to exist, his own path to passionate advocacy for employee ownership, and how the team approach to employee ownership makes for better business and lives.

The full, linked transcript of today's episode is available on our website at: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/108-martin-staubus-and-why-eo-matters

When an ESOP company files for bankruptcy, ESOP participants are at risk of losing everything because they are, at most, unsecured creditors. Bret Keisling explains why ESOP participants should be treated like secured creditors, not shareholders, and why the solution lies with Congress.

You can read the full transcript of today's episode on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-77-bankruptcy-esop-participants

Tom Roback, CEO of Blue Ridge ESOP Associates (www.blueridgeesop.com), joins host Bret Keisling for a look at Plan administration during the pandemic. Topics discussed include distributions and other plan changes under The CARES Act, distributions, repurchase obligations, interim valuations, partial plan termination, and Plan amendments.

Show notes are available on our website at: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/107-tom-roback-plan-administration-covid-19

Blue Ridge ESOP Associates (www.blueridgeesop.com) is a premiere ESOP Plan and 401(k) administration firm.

CEO Tom Roback joins host Bret Keisling to share exciting news about changes to Blue Ridge which positions it to remain a strong and independent ESOP TPA moving forward.

Read the full linked transcript of this episode on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-76-esop-spotlight-blue-ridge-esop-associates

Mark Kossow, Esq. of Clark Hill [www.clarkhill.com] joins host Bret Keisling to discuss many ESOP legal issues including pausing ESOP transaction closings, layoffs and furloughs and the 409(p) test, and Plan changes to manage distributions.

Learn more on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/