This month has been busy. But the mileage is only part of the story.

Over a few short weeks, EOX moved between some very different corners of the business and employee ownership worlds: ESOP leaders and advisors. Open-book management practitioners. B Corps. State Centers and municipal leaders. Business owners. Policy advocates. People working in capital, philanthropy, research, and economic development.

The point wasn’t to be everywhere. We are intentional about working alongside people tackling ownership, succession, culture, policy, and local economic development from very different angles.

EOX exists to expand employee ownership, and doing that well means staying deeply connected to the people already doing this work while also reaching business communities where EO fits...but may not yet be top of mind.

Our travels this month have certainly left us inspired by the growing momentum of the EO movement that shapes everything we do at EOX.

Freshly after joining EOX as our new Director of Outreach & Business Development, Romondo McEachern headed to Phoenix for the NCEO Forum. Not a bad first week on the job.

Our relationship with NCEO continues to be vital to our mission. Their community includes business owners, EO company leaders, advisors, attorneys, financial professionals, and others with the expertise to take employee ownership from serious consideration through transactions and beyond.

Romondo’s role adds something important on the EOX side of that equation: dedicated capacity to reach more business owners and connect them into the State Center Network. Phoenix gave him the chance to immediately start building those relationships.

A few days later, EOX headed to St. Louis, where Kyle Harshey joined Julie Leonhardt and Brooke Kuykendall from the Missouri Center for Employee Ownership at the Great Game of Business Conference.

Great Game is not strictly an employee ownership conference, which is precisely why our presence there matters.

Open-book management is built around helping employees understand how a business works, see how their work affects its performance, and share in its success. The overlap with employee ownership was everywhere. So were employee-owned companies, including a remarkable number among this year’s award recipients.

The conference theme was “Gateway to Potential,” a fitting St. Louis nod to the Arch. But beyond the theme was a useful reminder: ownership on paper is only part of the equation. Helping people understand the business and exercise an ownership mindset is where culture begins to catch up with any successful employee-owned structure. And when EO can connect naturally with audiences already thinking that way, we plan to be there.

Hats off Julie, who led an engaging panel titled, "S𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙧 𝙏𝙤𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧: 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙀𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙤𝙮𝙚𝙚 𝙊𝙬𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 𝙁𝙪𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙍𝙚𝙨𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙂𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙣 𝙐𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨," featuring first-hand experiences from employee-owned businesses hoping to inspire others to consider EO. Our friends at the NCEO, Tandem, and Prairie Capital also led an informative panel that showcased some eye-opening stats on why we need more employee ownership in this country.

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While Kyle was in St. Louis, Steve Storkan and Romondo were in Chicago for the EO Equals Summit.

EO Equals brought together leaders working across capital, policy, philanthropy, business advisory, research, economic development, and employee ownership itself. The agenda moved well beyond any single model, with honest discussion about business succession, worker wealth, public awareness, regional collaboration, and what it will take for far more owners to understand EO before they make an exit decision.

Steve left Chicago energized by a challenge from keynote speaker Felipe Witchger: keep pushing employee ownership beyond the people who already know about it.

That hits close to home for EOX. National ideas only matter if business owners eventually encounter them. Our State Centers help make that connection locally, while partnerships like EO Equals bring together many of the people who can strengthen what happens before and after that first introduction.

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Shortly after Chicago, Romondo headed to Raleigh for the North Carolina Employee Ownership Center’s (NCEOC) first-ever Business Continuity & Employee Ownership Conference.

The inaugural event attracted over 115 attendees.

Business owners exploring EO sat alongside advisors, service providers, existing employee-owned companies, municipal leaders, and representatives from State Centers around the country. A dedicated municipalities track gave local governments space to think seriously about how employee ownership can fit into their own economic development work.

For a first conference, NCEOC built a framework that will pay off in the years to come.

EOX was proud to sponsor the event, and even prouder to see a State Center create the kind of gathering that brings the right people together around the needs of its own state. The strong showing from fellow State Centers made it all the better.

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While Romondo was in Raleigh, Steve was back in D.C. for BLD Southeast.

BLD brings together B Corps and other mission-driven businesses that already think carefully about employees, communities, impact, and what responsible business can look like. Increasingly, employee ownership is becoming part of that thinking too.

Steve joined Miren Oca, Sam Mazzeo, and Donna Sky for a session that moved past EO 101 and into the practical questions owners actually ask: How large does my company need to be? When should I begin planning? What does a transition require?

The fit between B Corps and employee ownership is one we can't ignore. A company can build its identity around purpose for years, but succession eventually raises a harder question: who owns that purpose when the founder steps away?



Employee ownership gives mission-driven companies a proven way to answer it.

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Steve finished the month on our home turf in D.C. at the Employee-Owned S Corporations of America Federal Policy Conference & Lobby Day, alongside the first gathering of members of the Expanding ESOPs coalition.

This was, again, an importantly diverse audience for the EO movement: S corporation ESOP executives, employee-owners, practitioners, and organizations working on the federal policy environment surrounding ESOPs.

EOX is proudly model-neutral, and that means staying connected across the full employee ownership field. ESOPs remain a major part of that landscape, and strong relationships with organizations like ESCA help EOX and our State Centers stay connected to the people, expertise, and policy work shaping their future.

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While October gets the banner of Employee Ownership Month, September was a strong reminder that this work does not wait for October.

The work happens when an owner hears about EO at a business conference. It happens when an advisor knows where to send a curious client, or when a State Center gets municipal leaders thinking differently about business succession. It happens when mission-driven companies begin asking whether ownership itself should reflect their values. And (possibly) most importantly, it happens when practitioners, policymakers, and employee-owned companies share what they know about the POWER OF EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP.

We have endless ground to cover, but we are glad to be covering it alongside the EOX State Center Network and the growing number of partners who believe more business owners and workers should know what employee ownership can make possible.