Journey to an ESOP & Beyond

This episode provides a good overview of all of the roles in an ESOP company and their respective fiduciary responsibilities.  This was an interesting interview and might surprise some folks when it comes to what does fiduciary responsibility mean and who has it....

This episode focuses in on the what do I do with my forecast - documenting revenue and profit growth that will enable a strong ESOP transaction which should be accompanied with a plan to get there...getting into the difference of growing your business versus scaling...and multiple tips on simple ideas that you may or may not have thought about already.

This episode features an interview with singer/songwriter Eleanore Rue pushing forward in the Nashville area with a long term vision, product development, marketing, finance, and most of all courage.  (Oh yeah - she happens to be my daughter - who better to interview.) For companies considering an ESOP - being an entrepreneur is vital for the founding of a business and for the future sustainability of their ESOP business.  An ESOP company is no different than other companies and should understand how to recreate the entrepreneurial process in the next generation of leaders.

This episode reviews the current benefits of being S corporation ESOP and updates everyone on senate bill 1300 that could provide a new opportunity for a company to remain in S Corporation but also have the selling shareholders defer capital gains tax using the 1042 election.

This episode features an interview about Greg’s book and the principals he employed to crest an amazing culture leveraging the power of an ESOP. Greg’s story includes leading one of the fastest-growing and most successfulengineering, architecture, construction and environmental consulting firms in North America. Graves began his career at Burns & McDonnell in 1980, fresh out of college. Twenty-two years later, at the age of 43, he was named just the sixth CEO in the firm's 104 year history. He became CEO on Jan 1, 2004. From 2004-2016, the results speak for themselves: · Employment grew from 1500 to 5500 Employee-Owners...all organically.· Revenues grew from $300M to almost $3B. · An average ROI of above 25%...over 13 years!· Fortune Magazine's Top 100 Best Places to Work six times....14th in 2014.· Kansas City's Best Place to Work six times in a row.· Corporate Foundation grew 1000%.· Kansas Citian of the Year 2015.· Midwest's Entrepreneur of the Year 2014· Kansas City Philanthropist of the Year (along with Deanna)...2013. Currently, Greg is Chairman of the Board for two iconic Kansas City metro institutions that are trailblazers in fields he extremely passionate about — healthcare and the arts. Greg was named Chair of the University of Kansas Hospital Authority Board after serving as a board member since 2009. The Kansas City Repertory Theatre also appointed Greg as Chairman of its board after serving on the Executive Committee for one year.Greg serves on one public company board, UMB Financial Corporation. UMB is a $10B bank headquartered in Kansas City. Greg currently Chairs the Compensation Committee but is likely to move to Chair of the Governance Committee in 2017 as well as serve in the positon of Lead Independent Director.Greg's areas of technical experience include engineering, construction, electric utility, petrochemical, water, environmental and transportation.Greg has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines & and transportation.Greg has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and a Master of Business Administration from Rockhurst University.

This episode explores the 10 Rockefeller habits to help companies assess their business on their journey to an esop as to areas to improve as well as providing specific areas to support strengthening their leadership teams.

This episode provides a discussion with Peter Jones related to the requirements that ESOPs have independent board members and some best practices of having independent trustees.  Some insights into how to make this a positive for your ESOP.

James Urbach has been doing ESOPs for the last 20 years transitioning from the Department of Labor to transacting ESOPs and providing the functional role as independent trustee.  He has some great insight into the lifecycle of an ESOP company!

This episode focuses on factual data and interpretive trends to evaluate what is going to happen in new ESOPs over next ten years not more importantly why....

In this episode, Renee and I discuss the current political climate as it relates to ESOP with a particular focus on the new administration.  What should we expect in the future relative to the government’s support of this awesome opportunity for selling shareholders, their companies, and their employees?