UNI’s Leslie Wilson Shares Her Big Idea for Employee Ownership

In this clip, UNI’s Leslie Wilson speaks at the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum. 

For additional resources, visit our website: https://www.aspeninstitute.org/videos/unis-leslie-wilson-shares-her-big-idea-for-employee-ownership/ 

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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, I, I'm going last and I'm listening to a lot of great
ideas that are here today. So we have a lot to think about.
I know I certainly have a lot tothink about and some of what's
been brought up, I too will, will bring up these ideas.
So I'm Leslie Wilson. I'm Dean of the David W Wilson

(00:25):
College of Business at the University of Northern Iowa.
You and I is proudly the alma mater of one of our longest
serving senators in that SenatorCharles Grassley.
And I will say my husband and his coffee club have coffee at a
particular location every morning.
And often times he is right there with them in the same
room, not at the same table, buthaving coffee at that location.

(00:50):
What I like even better is the fact that his wife is a graduate
of the business college with a degree in accounting, which
accounting today recognizes you and I as having one, as having
the highest CPA pass rate in thenation.
So very proud of the the work that we're doing.

(01:14):
Thank you to the Aspen Institute.
Thank you to Rutgers for inviting me to speak today.
Share my perspectives on the role of higher education and
especially regional public universities like you and I in
the advancement of employee ownership as a business model.

(01:36):
Regional public universities, which you may or may not know,
are really economic engines for the regions in which they
reside. 70% of all undergraduates go to regional
public institutions. A We have a huge impact on our

(01:57):
regions, on our states. Now in Iowa, small to medium
sized businesses generate almost46% of Iowa employment and in
rural counties that is closer to55%.
Nationally, as you guys probablyknow, 75% of business owners

(02:19):
want to retire in the next 10 years and Iowa's silver tsunami
makes that percentage even higher.
However, as you also know, for those businesses that want to
sell, only about 20 to 30% of those businesses will actually
find a buyer. More often, it's going to be

(02:41):
closing the door. Those sold often move assets to
different communities. They become absorbed and they're
gone. Out of the community.
We lose employees engaged in thecommunity, supporting our
schools, providing leadership spending.
Locally, they're gone. The impact on rural communities

(03:05):
is a downward economic spiral. Many of you are from Midwestern
states where you're seeing this going on.
And for Iowa, most of Iowa is rural.
Even our urban areas aren't urban like you guys from New
York. Think about, OK, we're much
smaller. Supporting economic growth

(03:29):
through teaching, through research and through outreach is
a key component of the Wilson College mission.
We talk about this, we articulate this.
Employee ownership is now a toolto support this mission.

(03:49):
Our first business college Dean,Robert Waller, yes, author of
Bridges of Madison County. You never thought that a
business Dean could write a romance novel, but it happened.
Actually started research or started our outreach programs
such as our Institute for Decision Making to support

(04:10):
economic development in Iowa communities.
Today, this work resides in a unit associated with the
business college called Businessand Community Services.
Our outreach unit has an annual impact exceeding $30 million
annually, engaging in projects in all 99 Iowa counties and 37

(04:36):
states. We're not just in Iowa.
We've built on that success by launching the Iowa Center for
Employee Ownership to become the21st state center in employee
ownership expansion network. The Ford and Kauffman
foundations have invested in ourefforts recognizing that our

(04:59):
unique portfolio of business focused centers are effectively
responding to Iowa business needs.
We've already heard one big ideatoday is closing the awareness
gap and that is the mission of our Iowa CEO.

(05:20):
We're determined to do that. Research can also play a very
important role in impacting employee ownership.
Research provides insight to allfacets of employee ownership, it
impacts classroom teaching, and it helps policy makers

(05:40):
understand how policy and law can advance this business
ownership model and keep small and medium sized businesses
inside their communities. Rutgers Institute for the Study
of Employee Ownership and ProfitSharing provides leadership in
advancing that research. And we have partnered with

(06:03):
Rutgers and the Ford Foundation to support our faculty extending
their research into employee ownership.
And how might that be an opportunity to look at ways at
simplifying the process of getting there?
Tammy's idea, our third mission component and the most important

(06:25):
to me, is teaching at you and I 70% of our graduates begin their
careers in the state of Iowa with many finding employment in
small and medium sized businesses.
However, as I looked in, my academic background is not
finance. My academic background is

(06:48):
focused on information systems and supply chain.
So that's what I tend to study. So employee ownership, as I'm
looking at it, is not an idea I study.
So I looked into a typical book that is used in our introduction
to corporation finance. And this is the book that all of
our business students take, every single one of them,

(07:10):
regardless of the major. And there's not one mention of
employee ownership. Not one.
Looked at a book that's targetedto intermediate finance students
and there was a single chapter on Esop's.
There was no mention of employeecooperatives and employee

(07:31):
ownership trust. And one of those 1% case studies
that you talked about was a casestudy on an ESOP failure.
OK, that really helps there. So the curriculum is ignoring
this particular topic, but I seethat it holds the potential of

(07:51):
increasing awareness from that for that next leader of
businesses today. So there is a considerable gap.
You and I is committed to working with other academic
leaders in the employee ownership space to develop broad
based solutions and curriculum to support that.

(08:11):
In our discussions concerning a student entrepreneur who
designed her business to work and engage and equip young women
for their futures, a Deloitte partner on my Advisory Board
shared his belief that there is nothing more philanthropic than
providing a person a job. We have many retiring business

(08:36):
owners who want to ensure that their employees keep their jobs.
We have ideas about how to do that.
So our mission at the Universityof Northern Iowa is to provide
the outreach, the research, and the curriculum to ensure that

(08:58):
employee ownership is an effective tool for doing just
that. So thank you.