The time for employee ownership is now

[Applause] [Music] the location for this year's event here in one of California's Great cities is notable project Equity is a national nonprofit organization with programs and team members throughout the country but our founding in California is significant before we set about partnering with folks throughout the country many of you here in this room it is the Innovative spirit and willingness to adopt new ideas that is part of the California culture including business that has been important to our ability to develop and share our work we're challenged to achieve impact in this California economy it's massive the fifth largest if California were a Sovereign Nation with a diverse population of 39 million resident 9% of the US population and almost 10 million right here in Los Angeles we're challenged with our work in California every day but it's honed us we've learned that to grow EO nationally our work must be adapted for the regions and business sectors and communities we seek to impact your collaboration is invaluable in this work look around this room government Academia philanthropy Capital nonprofit organizations Legacy business owners and employee owners the media and of course many participants in the private business sector are all here I think many of you will agree that this is one of the most diverse groups of shared space with within a professional setting that you've participated that speaks to the relevance and opportunity presented by employee owners ownership the folks in this room may see the value in I'll call it EO for short from different perspectives it could be a succession and liquidity path for business owners some may see it as an economic Justice strategy or a business productivity approach or an economic development program for business and job retention EO is relevant across just about everyone's interest employ employee ownership isn't partisan and it isn't charity employee ownership is something that can happen every day in this country as a part of business as usual and that's what we want it to be Dallas our marketing director shared some ideas with me about how it is that we think about employee ownership and he came up with this thought that it is the new face of Entrepreneurship it's the pathway to economic resiliency and wealth building for those who traditional path to entrepreneurship is unavailable simultaneously it's the liquidity strategy at every business owner's fingertips now I can't tell you the number of times members of our team have presented the concept of employee ownership of an employee ownership transition to business owners or their advisers and had those folks say this is the best kept secret in business we don't think that should be the case anymore it's time for employee ownership to be a normalized mainstream model within our national economy and all of you folks are an important part of this next evolution of EO from Niche to normal the opportunity is now I want to share some data with you here that underscores why we're we are at this important inflection point in the US economy we live with a corrosive wealth Gap in this country the top 10% of households by wealth hold 67% of total household wealth the bottom 5 50% 50 50% hold 2.5% of that wealth I'm going let you sit with that a second I'll say it again the top 10% of households by wealth hold 23 67% of total household wealth the bottom 50% hold 2.5% of that wealth according to business broker and bis by sell the nation's largest business Marketplace only 20 to 25% of businesses sell we also know that there are roughly 3 million businesses owned by individuals 55 and above they represent 32 million employees so if only 25% of those businesses actually sell what happens to those 24 million workers in that 75% that don't and consider the Lost value for all the business owners that were unable to sell there's enormous opportunity to preserve and create quality jobs build wealth for workers and rebuild the middle class all while providing selling owners a great exit strategy so again the time for employee ownership is now [Applause]