The Ford Foundation’s Margot Brandenburg Speaks at the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum

In this clip, the Ford Foundation’s Margot Brandenburg speaks at the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum. For additional resources, visit our website: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/the-ford-foundations-margot-brandenburg-speaks-at-the-2025-employee-ownership-ideas-forum/ 

Or subscribe to our podcast and listen on the go: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/aspeneop/

For other session videos, visit the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aspeneop

The 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum took place on April 9-10, 2025, virtually and in Washington DC. The Forum is proudly co-hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University.

This year’s theme, “From Workers to Owners,” highlights how the experience of ownership changes the reality of work for workers. The forum highlights companies in a range of business sectors and explores how employee ownership fits their business strategy and approach to business leadership. We also discuss the particular role employee ownership can play in supporting business success, and we consider the role institutional investors can play in improving capital access for employee ownership conversions and expansions.

For more information about the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, including our speakers, agenda, and additional resources, visit our website: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/events/employee-ownership-ideas-forum-2025/

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
I'm very honoured to introduce Margo Bradenburg from the Ford
Foundation. Margo serves as a Senior Program
Officer in Mission investments with a particular focus on
strengthening the infrastructurefor impact investments in
shaping broader capital markets.She's the co-author of The Power

(00:27):
of Impact Investing, but we all know that that Margo invests a
lot of her time in understandingthe ecology of the emerging
employee ownership world. And this being a world that
spends so much of their time looking at themselves in the

(00:50):
mirror, God knows we need someone who's trying hard to be
objective and to appreciate broadly from the outside what is
going on, what could go on, where this could be.
We need someone who has a investment perspective.

(01:14):
So let's just join me in expressing our appreciation for
all of Margo's silent and untoldefforts to keep us on the right
track. Thank you, Margo.
Joseph with the Zingers, I love it.
Thank you so much. Hi, everybody.

(01:34):
I am so happy to be here. So sorry to be part of the
reason that you were all kind ofdragged out of your lunch
conversations, but want to startby just expressing deep
appreciation, Maureen to you, toyou, Joseph, to Jack, to the
incredible teams at Aspen and Rutgers.
And this has really been phenomenal and I feel really
lucky to be here and I have beenchopping it up for the past few

(01:57):
days. So I also jotted down my notes
just to sort of pick up on something Joseph mentioned.
My team at the Ford Foundation, we're based in New York City,
called Mission Investments, and we manage 2 pools of investment
capital and a grant portfolio. So we're a little bit of an
outlier in the world of philanthropy.

(02:19):
And we can deploy, and we have deployed all of those tools in
our toolkit in support of employee ownership.
There's not that many things that cut across as neatly as I
think this opportunity does. And so it's something that's
sort of near and dear to the hearts of my colleagues.
And I am honored that this is mythird forum, and each one has

(02:40):
been powerful. But I've observed a few
similarities and differences andI thought I could segue into the
next panel by kind of flagging some of what I see as the
through lines and some of what feels different.
So the the first similarity which has been commented on is
just this tremendous bipartisan appeal.

(03:03):
And I know that that's been commented on in the past.
But Marine, as you said earlier,to hear a Republican senator
from Louisiana invoke Karl Marx and a staffer for Bernie Sanders
quoting Ronald Reagan. And both of those like
affirmingly, not with any snark or not with any like

(03:24):
disparagement. I mean, I imagine that there are
more than one type of conversation where that would
happen. And you know, in this moment in
time, I just think that that superpower continues and grows
stronger and is just worth continuing to celebrate.
You know, the second is the diversity of the stakeholders in
the room, right? We have academics and think

(03:45):
tanks, policymakers, practitioners, workers,
investors, funders. Like I know from having been
fortunate enough to be part of the early days of impact
investing that we need a whole ecosystem.
We need that big tent. And I see it more and more in
each of these. FORA is that the plural of
forum. And it's really excited and

(04:05):
exciting and I think it bodes well.
And the third is just we've had and continue to have both great
data and great stories. And I think we're getting even
better at telling the stories. So yesterday we heard some
emerging research, it sounds like painstakingly collected
with the department, with the census department, documenting

(04:26):
the positive relationship between Aesop's and labor
productivity. We also heard phenomenal
stories, right about workers. We heard stories from workers.
This was the first forum, I believe, where we had a worker
owner panel. And I think that was a really
fantastic addition and I hope it's one that will become
permanent. But I think that left brain,

(04:48):
right vein stories, data like that's a superpower for this
work. But with the benefit of 3-4
forums under my belt, I think there's also some differences.
Some of them are a question of degree, right?
Our stories are better, our dataare improving, and the tent

(05:11):
continues to grow larger. We've also, you know, what feels
different to me now is we've talked in the past about the
awareness gap that exists aroundemployee ownership, and we've
talked about sort of dedicated efforts to fill that gap.
What's been exciting to me aboutthe past two days is we haven't
just talked about ownership in avacuum.

(05:34):
We've talked about it in conjunction with topics that are
commanding the headlines, right?AI and whether it displaces
workers, economic nationalism and reshoring like these are
what people are talking about. So as we weave in employee
ownership to those conversations, as well as have
kind of dedicated sessions like this, I just think we move the
ball, you know, forward much faster.

(05:57):
We are also seeing some points of tension arise.
I think that's just if I love this, looking at ourselves in
the mirror. I think it's common in any field
where you have really strong legacy players and then a surge
of new entrants for there to be some points of tension.
And honestly, I think that's healthy and constructive as long

(06:20):
as we manage it respectfully andproductively.
And Joseph, I just, I want to appreciate you in particular as
someone who's been a trailblazerfor decades and who still
manages to welcome those of us who got religion around this
topic in the past few years withopen arms and with tremendous
patience. And not everyone does that.
And so I just think it's a huge testament to you.

(06:49):
And then last point to state theobvious, like the context in
which we're having this conversation is pretty
dramatically different from whatit was just last year.
And as Phil Reeves said earlier,whose fund APIs and Heritage we
are happy to be invested in along with a lot of our friends
and peers here. You know, we are not in the last

(07:11):
year of the last arc of 50 years.
We are almost certainly in the first year of the next 50 year
arc. I went to public policy grad
school. We talked about the Overton
window just like the universe ofwhat's possible and regardless
of our particular sentiments about what's in the news cycle
like that window has just expanded dramatically.

(07:33):
And so I think this conversationagainst this backdrop of
realignment and expanded possibilities is just really
great timing. And I appreciated everyone's
exhortation this morning to get much further, much faster and to
bring that urgency to the opportunity that we have now.
So with that gratitude again, and I segue to my esteemed

(07:56):
colleagues. Thank you.