Earlier this week, Daniel Goldstein, CEO of employee-owned Folience [www.folience.com], testified on Challenges and Benefits of Employee-Owned Small Businesses before the US House Small Business Committee. In today's episode, we pay our respect to the work Daniel does growing the EO sandbox. In addition to representing The ESOP Association at the hearing, Daniel was the Keynote Speaker at the NCEO National Conference in Sept. 2019 and serves on the boards of EOF and EOX, among others.

The link to the video of Daniel Goldstein's February 12th testimony before the US House Committee on Small Business, along with a full transcript of today's podcast, can be found on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-70-daniel-goldstein-grows-the-eo-sandbox

Bret Keisling takes a quick look at our road to our 100th Podcast. Podcast contributor Jennifer Krieger of Weaver CPAs [https://weaver.com/] returns to share her thoughts on a recent meeting of ESOP professionals and insights on her first year of ESOP practice development.

Learn more at www.theesoppodcast.com.

ESOP companies must provide participants (including current and former employees) certain information including an annual account statement and Summary Plan Description. We visit our archives for a brief discussion with Bret Keisling, Rich Heeter, and Brian Keisling about participant disclosures, including why participants don’t receive the full valuation report.

For the transcript, links, and other information from today's episode, please visit our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/69-esop-participants-and-plan-information

Recent episodes have contrasted EO and non-EO companies. Today we look at whether it's appropriate to make capital expenditures (CapEx) that result in a drop in share price, whether it's okay for an ESOP (the trust or the company) to own real estate, and what constitutes a prohibited transaction for ESOPs.

For the transcript, links, and other information from today's episode, please visit our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/99-capex-real-estate-and-esop-share-price

Why should EO professionals support State Centers?

More EO means more business for the professionals. Bret Keisling shares his experiences as a founding member of PaCEO (https://ownershippennsylvania.org/), and how it was important to his former firm’s growth, even if there were no “direct” referrals. Also: Congrats to Rich Heeter and Capital Trustees on its new offices.

The full, linked transcript of this episode is available on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/68-eo-professionals-and-state-centers

Under Armour, Grubhub, and Casper Sleep face significant challenges, including valuation/forecasting concerns, and issues related to corporate culture, governance, and identity. Bret Keisling discusses how things might be different if they were employee-owned, and why it’s too late for them to be EO.

The full transcript of this episode, with links to references, can be found on our website at https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/98-eat-sleep-exercise-an-eo-look-at-non-eo-companies

We turn to our archives for some great ideas from former producer Brian Keisling including Idea Boards, sharing information, and ways to make sure employee owners are appreciated and motivated.

You can read the full transcript of the podcast, with links to our archives, on our website, here: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-67-engaging-empowering-employee-owners

After the sale of New Belgium Brewing was announced, Fifty By Fifty published "Last Call", a collection of views on the impact of New Belgium’s sale on EO. In today’s episode, Bret Keisling discusses posts included in Last Call by Corey Rosen and Michael Keeling, as well as an interview with Christopher Mackin and Richard May.

Links to all the articles mentioned in this podcast, along with a full transcript of this episode, are available on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/97-last-call-continued-a-further-discussion-on-eo-after-new-belgium

Project Equity (www.project-equity.org) promotes all forms of employee ownership. Among other efforts, they work to leverage the public sector (beginning with cities), recognizing that EO is important to workers AND their communities.

The full transcript for this episode, with links to all the articles and resources mentioned, is available on our website: https://www.theesoppodcast.com/post/mini-cast-66-project-equity-a-community-based-focus-on-eo

Pennsylvania is poised to become a leader in EO-friendly states. Kevin McPhillips and the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership (ownershippennsylvania.org) have worked for five years towards this goal.

Today we turn to our archives for a great conversation with Kevin about the PaCEO from March of 2019.