Employee Ownership Conference Brings Business Leaders From Across the Nation to Portland, Oregon April 22-24, 2009 To Discuss Opportunities and Challenges in Difficult Economic Times

Over 700 business leaders and employee ownership and equity professionals will gather in April 22-24 in Portland, Ore., for the 2009 Employee Ownership Conference, presented by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) and the Beyster Institute at the University of California, San Diego’s Rady School of Management.
 
RSM McGladrey Retirement Resources is proud to be sponsoring this conference.  I will be speaking on April 23rd about S Corporation Issues for ESOP Companies. To register for the conference, call the NCEO at 510-208-1304, or register online at http://www.nceo.org/meetings/annualconference.html
 
Is Employee Ownership  Still a Good Idea in Bad Economic Times?
“In these difficult times, we hear a lot about employees losing retirement funds invested in company stock, but the real story of employee ownership is more complex,” said Corey Rosen, executive director of the NCEO, based in Oakland, Calif. “The data show decisively that companies that share ownership broadly with employees are less likely to go out of business, and that they generate more jobs and create an average of three times the retirement benefits as comparable non-employee ownership companies. But the success these companies have is not simply a matter of sharing stock; to work, employee ownership companies have to set up a culture of high employee engagement in decisions affecting their work.”
 
“In tough times like these, giving employees a stake in the outcome inspires people to put in the extra effort required to ensure the survival of a company,” said Tony Mathews, Beyster Institute director of employee ownership. “This conference is the best place to get the latest information on employee ownership and meet the people who make the equity sharing strategy work.”
 
Some Highlights include:
 
•         A keynote address by Colleen Barrett, president emeritus of Southwest Airlines. Barrett will share lessons from her company’s success in building a winning team of employee owners and talk about her own experiences at Southwest since its inception in 1971.
 
•         The announcement, on April 23, of the winners of the 2009 Innovations in Employee Ownership Awards.
 
•         Over 60 sessions in five learning tracks: employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) basics, ESOPs: beyond the basics, equity compensation, communications and culture, and management. Topics addressed will include case studies on dynamic companies with actively engaged employee owners, tips for company leaders, ways to make the best of economic turbulence,, as well as sessions on technical issues such as Internal Revenue Code Section 409A, ESOP repurchase obligation and succession planning.
 
The NCEO is a nonprofit research and education organization established in 1981 by Corey Rosen. The NCEO is based in Oakland, Calif., and is widely recognized as the source for accurate, unbiased information on ESOPs, stock options, other forms of equity compensation and ownership culture. Visit www.nceo.org  for more information.
 
The Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, focuses on training, education and consulting to advance employee ownership. The institute actively assists individual companies in creating or enhancing employee ownership and participation programs. The Beyster Institute is the nation's leading university-based center of expertise on employee ownership. Visit www.beysterinstitute.ucsd.edu for more information.