In this episode, we talk with Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks and Tim Garbinksy about the National Center for Employee Ownership. This episode was recorded on April 10th, 2019 at the record-setting NCEO 2019 Conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks is Outreach and Membership Coordinator at The National Center for Employee Ownership. She focuses on spreading the word about the benefits of employee ownership to companies, community groups, business leaders, and the public. She also works to ensure that the NCEO's membership is supported and growing.

Timothy Garbinsky will be familiar to regular ESOP Podcast listeners, as he has reached out to us in the past to help our listeners learn about NCEO's conference offerings (e.g., check out Mini-cast 31). He is Outreach Coordinator at The National Center for Employee Ownership. and works with volunteers, allied organizations, and the press to creatively and effectively disseminate information about employee ownership and advance the NCEO's mission.

Learn more and register for the NCEO's 2019 Fall ESOP Forum (Salt Lake City, Sept. 17–18) at www.nceo.org.

Bonus: Our weekly wellness tip from Sara Sullivan, Certified Nutritionist (sarasullivan.com).

In this #FiduciaryFlashback Mini-cast episode, we are throwing it farther back than we ever have before!

In 1993 Rob Zicaro, who appeared on Episode 22 of The ESOP Podcast, was an employee owner at Web Industries [www.webindustries.com]. His experience there made him a strong advocate for employee ownership. In fact, it's because of his successful participation in an ESOP that Rob was able to retire from Web and shift his focus to writing and recording his own music [robzmusic.com/]! Even to this day, Rob remains an incredibly strong ESOP advocate; you can follow him on Twitter at @RobZicaro for regular employee ownership food for thought.

In today's flashback, we head way back to "The Future of the American Workplace Conference" on July 26th, 1993, when Rob Zicaro put on his Web employee-owner T-shirt and shared his valuable insights on employee ownership with the other participants -- including President Bill Clinton. [For the video of this conference, head to The ESOP Association's YouTube channel here: youtu.be/cUVWz54u5ro]

In this episode, we sit down at #NCEO19 with Nickolas N. Sypniewski, ASA, of Comstock Advisors (www.comstockadvisors.com) for a deep dive on ESOP valuation.

Nick Sypniewski, an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) of the American Society of Appraisers, is Managing Director in ComStock Advisors’ Cincinnati office. He has 25 years of experience in valuation, finance, and banking. has completed valuations for ESOPs, estate taxes, estate planning, gifting, mergers, acquisitions, sales, lending, litigation support, and marital dissolution. In addition to appraising businesses, he has appraised intellectual property including patents and trademarks. His consulting experience on behalf of ESOPs includes feasibility studies, implementation of ESOPs, purchases of large blocks of stock, annual updates, sales of ESOP companies, and acquisitions of companies by ESOP companies.

This mini-cast is a #FiduciaryFlashback excerpt from The ESOP Podcast Episode 49. Aaron Moberger of employee-owned Mass. Bay Brewing Company, known for Harpoon Brewery, UFO Beer, and Clown Shoes Beer, talks with us about how employee ownership can further strengthen the culture at an Independent Craft Brewer and lead to continual process improvements. An ESOP increases employee engagement, which can make a good work environment even better!

Aaron Moberger is also an active member of the leadership of the New England Chapter of The ESOP Association. This episode was recorded on Friday, October 12th, 2018 a The ESOP Association 's New England Chapter's Annual Fall Conference in Mystic, Connecticut.

At #NCEO19, we sat down with Bruce Bickley, CPA, of 1042 Consulting. He takes a fiduciary approach to assist a company in selling to an ESOP in a tax-free transaction, and describes how this transaction takes place, as well as sharing some of the history of the reasoning behind the 1042 tax code.

Now that we're back from NCEO2019 -- the National Center for Employee Ownership's conference in Pittsburgh, PA -- where do we go from here? On this week's mini-cast we share some quick tips on bringing ESOP conference knowledge back to your employee-owned company. Share with your fellow owners to make sure that the education and collaboration momentum keeps going!

On March 25, 2019, at The ESOP Association New England Chapter Spring Conference, Jon Williams of Blue Ridge ESOP Associates (www.blueridgeesop.com), Bret Keisling of Capital Trustees (www.captrustees.com), and Mary McCooe of Maselan & Jones (http://www.maselanjones.com/) presented on ESOP Basics: Focus on Plan Design and Administration (originally listed in the program as “ESOP 101”.)

From the conference program: “Are you new to this whole ESOP thing? Are you a first-time conference attendee? Could you use a refresher course to learn more about the basics? If you answered yes to any of these, then this is the session for you!! You will leave this session with a better understanding of how an ESOP works, why ESOP companies are so great, and what you can do to make yours better! No question is too basic!”

Capital Trustees, LLC was proud to be the trustee Gold Sponsor of The ESOP Association New England Chapter’s record-breaking 2019 Annual Spring Conference at the Marriott Burlington in Burlington, Massachusetts. If you enjoyed this presentation, we encourage you to attend your local ESOP Chapter conference and start a conversation with your fellow owners; learn more at www.esopassociation.org/chapters.

In this episode of the mini-cast, we have two quick interviews right from the floor of the 2019 National Center for Employee Ownership Conference in Pittsburgh, PA: We speak with the very busy NCEO Conference Director Ivette Torres and equally busy NCEO Outreach Coordinator Timothy Garbinsky! We thank them both for graciously sharing their time as they wrapped up a jam-packed conference, and we congratulate them on the record-breaking success of #NCEO2019!

We will be sharing more interviews and presentations from the NCEO conference in the coming weeks, including an interview with NCEO Outreach and Membership Coordinator Ramona Rodriguez-Brooks on the many reasons you should become an NCEO member. But... you certainly don't need to wait until that episode to join -- you can check out NCEO membership at https://www.nceo.org/secure/join.php today!

On March 25, 2019 Capital Trustees, LLC was the trustee Gold Sponsor of The ESOP Association New England Chapter’s record-breaking Annual Spring Conference at the Marriott Burlington in Burlington, Massachusetts.

In this episode we talk with Amy Huot of Proponent (www.proponent.com), President of the New England Chapter, and hear about the passion that led her to volunteer to take the lead to support employee-ownership.

We then talk to Sandra Smith of BerryDunn (www.berrydunn.com) Vice President of Programming for the New England Chapter, and learn about how the great chapter content is selected and developed.

Learn all about The ESOP New England Chapter (or find your own chapter) here: www.esopassociation.org/chapters/new-england/chapter-officers

From April 9–11, 2019 the entire Capital Trustees team will be going to this year's record-setting, sold-out National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Pittsburgh, PA. (You can hear all about #NCEO19 on The ESOP Mini-cast Episode 27).

On Tuesday, April 9th, in the 10:30–11:45 AM NCEO Concurrent Session, Bret Keisling of Capital Trustees, Michael D. Gore of Penn United Technologies, Inc., and Edward A. Wilusz of Value Management Inc. will present “Can ESOPs Do That? When Business Decisions Affect Value.” “Management may need to consider value in situations where it may not have come to mind such as capital expenditures, compensation, and strategy.”

On Wednesday, April 10th, in the 3:45–5:00 PM NCEO Concurrent Session, Rich Heeter of Capital Trustees, Robert Hilton of South Park Advisors, LLC, and Kathleen Weber of ESOP Plus: Schatz Brown Glassman LLP will present on “Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation and Warrants.” “An overview of non-qualified deferred compensation, including warrants, SARS, and phantom stock followed by real world examples with discussion from the perspective of trustee, attorney, and valuation.”

We look forward to seeing many of our listeners at the conference! We always appreciate it when listeners of the podcast come up and introduce themselves; we love to hear your feedback face-to-face, or email us at [email protected].