Hometown Ownership: The Impact of Employee Ownership in Rural Communities

Rural communities looking to improve economic opportunities and retain jobs and community wealth know employee ownership can help them achieve these objectives. In fact, some of the states, towns, and cities with the densest number of employee owned-companies are in primarily rural areas. These companies range from small worker cooperatives in agriculture and energy to medium and large companies in manufacturing and construction, among other sectors. During this panel conversation, we’ll hear from elected officials and employee-owned companies in rural areas about the important role of employee ownership in their communities and the lessons they have learned about bringing shared prosperity to rural areas. Speakers include:

• Daniel Goldstein, Chief Executive Officer, Go ESOP LLC; Executive Fellow, Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing
• Molly Hemstreet, Founder and Co-Executive Director, The Industrial Commons; Executive Fellow, Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing
• Jenny Levy, Executive Vice President, People, Community & Environment, Hypertherm
• Michael Williams, CFO, Black & Veatch
• Jeff Guo, Co-host and Reporter for Planet Money, NPR (moderator)

This video comes from the second Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. Our 2024 Forum, “Employee Ownership on the Ground,” brought innovative employee share ownership initiatives and speakers from around the country to Washington DC to highlight how this bipartisan approach to improving jobs, wealth creation, and business performance is helping create more equitable economies in states, cities, and rural communities.

For clips and highlights from the Forum, subscribe to the Economic Opportunities Program on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aspeneop/

And tune in to our podcast to listen to full discussions on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop

For more from the Forum — including videos, photos, audio, transcripts, and additional resources — visit: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/employee-ownership-ideas-forum-2024/