On 28 June 2019, Paul Mark, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and advocate for employee ownership joined William Franklin, Partner at Pett Franklin and Chairman of the Worked Examples Group (WEG) to host a webinar discussing how employee ownership is developing in the US and potential lessons for UK companies.

Employee ownership is one of the few policies which enjoys bi-partisan support in the USA. Similarly, there has been cross-party support for the policy in the UK and this has led to an increase in the number of companies converting to employee-owned companies through acquisitions by Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs).

The webinar was held as part of the Employee Ownership Day or EO Day events and activities, an initiative of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), of which Pett Franklin is a professional member. The EOA is a not for profit organisation that represents employee owned companies across the UK. Pett Franklin acts for companies who are employee owned or are transitioning to employee ownership, either entirely or partly.  It was interesting to find out how UK employee owned companies can learn from other employee owned companies in the US.