SMLR's Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing helped to inform the first-ever White House Convening on Worker Ownership, a landmark gathering of government officials, experts, managers and employees of employee-owned companies, representatives of state employee ownership centers, non-profit think tanks, and philanthropic foundations.
Bill Castellano and Adria Scharf, Associate Directors of the Institute, Melissa Hoover, a Research Associate, Jack Moriarty, Associate Director for Policy Analysis, Bethany Dennis, Senior Program Administrator, and Distinguished Professor Joseph Blasi attended the June 25 event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, located next to the West Wing.
A team at the National Economic Council (NEC) is exploring how employee share ownership can strengthen the middle class, build out the manufacturing supply chain, provide a succession plan for retiring business owners, and enhance national competitiveness, especially keeping jobs in America.
As part of that yearlong effort, the NEC has convened staff members from different government agencies that have programs related to employee share ownership. Typically, a White House Convening is the next step in exploring a policy issue.
This Convening focused on government programs, research, the importance of worker ownership to the Administration's economic agenda, the benefits for workers and communities, and ways to increase access to capital for worker ownership transitions.
Speaking in his role as Advisor to the U.S. Treasury Department, Professor Blasi discussed a program that grants loans to ESOPs, worker coops, and employee ownership trusts to facilitate employee buyouts. Dr. Scharf shared the Institute’s research about how employee share ownership helps workers to accumulate wealth.
As part of the Convening, the Institute shared a review of employee share ownership data from nine federal agencies.
