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The Advertising Agency That Put Its Future on the Payroll
Zehnder Communications survived Katrina, built an analytics habit before it was fashionable, and made its employees the owners. Thirty years in, its most interesting product may be the way the agency itself is designed.
Stephanie Silverman Built a Washington Firm - Then Gave Its People a Stake
The founder of Venn Strategies spent decades arguing that workers should share in the companies they build. Then she made the argument personal.
Dan Kenary Bet the Brewery on the People Who Built It
Harpoon began as three friends chasing the local beer culture they had found in Europe. Nearly four decades later, Kenary's most revealing product is not an IPA but a durable idea: let the people doing the work own the future.
Todd Kaufman Built a Software Company That Its Employees Could Own
A sixth-grade encounter with BASIC led to a career in code, a roadside Chili’s led to Test Double, and a stubborn question about fairness led its founders to give the company to its employees.
Harpoon Bet $70 Million on Its Workers. Then the Beer Market Changed.
Harpoon used a leveraged employee buyout to keep a beloved Boston brewer independent. A decade later, consolidation forced a second experiment: share the machinery, protect the local brands and make the taproom matter as much as the six-pack.
The Firm Buying Back America's Factory Floor - Then Handing It to the Workers
Two brothers watched private equity buy their father's factory and shut it down. Their answer was to build a manufacturing group that ends with the employees owning the whole thing.
The Holding Company That Never Plans to Sell
OwnersEdge buys healthy companies, folds their employees into one diversified ownership plan, and keeps the exit door shut. Its wager is that patient capital, shared services and a stake for the people doing the work can turn succession planning into a durable growth model.
Qapita
Qapita is a Singapore-headquartered equity management platform that helps private and public companies, startups and investment funds run their cap tables, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), valuations, fundraising, liquidity events and fund administration in one system. Founded in 2019 by a banker-investor-technologist trio, it serves over 2,400 private companies and 100+ listed companies across India, Southeast Asia and now the US, managing more than $55B in equity for over 500,000 stakeholders.
California Drywall Co.
California Drywall Co. is one of the largest wall-and-ceiling specialty contractors in the United States, building interiors and exteriors across Northern California since 1946. From its San Jose base it delivers drywall, lath and plaster, metal framing, cold-formed steel engineering, fireproofing, acoustical ceilings, rainscreens and prefabricated wall panels for landmark projects including Apple Park, Levi's Stadium, SFO Terminal 2 and major hospitals. In August 2023 it became a 100% employee-owned company through an ESOP, putting equity in the hands of its roughly 700 team members.
Hathaway Dinwiddie
Hathaway Dinwiddie is a 100% employee-owned general contractor headquartered in San Francisco that has spent more than a century building the landmarks California works, lives, and heals in - from the Salesforce Tower to the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and more than 10 million square feet of life-science space on the Peninsula. Built on planning, adaptation, and proactive partnership, the firm pairs century-old craft with advanced BIM workflows, LEED-driven sustainability, and an industry-leading safety record.
R.S. Hughes Co., Inc.
R.S. Hughes Co., Inc. is a privately held, employee-owned industrial distributor founded in 1954. From its Sunnyvale, California headquarters it runs more than 40 stocking warehouses across the United States, Mexico, and Costa Rica, carrying over 350,000 products - adhesives, abrasives, tapes, safety gear, labels, electrical and shipping supplies - for aerospace, OEM, and MRO customers. Its Saunders division provides custom cutting and converting, and the company pairs deep local inventory with trained product specialists.
Walters & Wolf
Walters & Wolf is an employee-owned (ESOP) building-envelope contractor based in Fremont, California. Founded in 1977 by John Walters and Randy Wolf, the firm designs, engineers, fabricates, and installs curtain wall, architectural glass, metal panels, stone cladding, GFRC and architectural precast concrete, plus interior door/frame/hardware systems. With roughly 600 employees across seven locations in five western states, it is one of North America's largest building-envelope manufacturers and has clad landmark projects for Apple, Google, Adobe, Kaiser, and Sutter Health.
Chris Wolf
Chris Wolf is the Chief Executive Officer of Walters & Wolf, one of the leading glass and glazing contractors in North America. Based in Fremont, California, he leads a 650-person employee-owned company that designs, engineers, fabricates, and installs architectural glazing, curtain wall systems, and door openings for clients including Google, Apple, Adobe, and Kaiser. Wolf rose through the company over 15 years as Vice President before taking the helm as CEO around 2022. Under his and prior leadership, Walters & Wolf has become widely recognized for its deep commitment to lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System, maintaining a library of over 6,000 improvement videos and earning recognition from lean manufacturing expert Paul Akers as 'the best lean company I know.'
Eric Foster
Eric Foster spent 42 years at Swinerton - one of the largest 100% employee-owned construction companies in the US - rising from project engineer in 1982 to CEO in January 2020, the company's 12th chief executive in its 132-year history. A UC Berkeley civil engineering graduate, he led Swinerton through the COVID-19 pandemic, oversaw the launch of mass timber subsidiary Timberlab, and expanded the firm to $4.3 billion in revenue across 20 locations before retiring on January 11, 2024. His career touched landmark San Francisco structures including SFMOMA and the historic Monadnock Building.
Paul Gutierrez
Paul Gutierrez is President and Chief Executive Officer of California Drywall Co., the San Jose-based specialty contractor that ranks among the largest wall-and-ceiling firms in the United States. In August 2023, he led the company's transition from third-generation family ownership to a 100% employee stock ownership plan, a structural rewrite of a 77-year-old business with roughly 700 employees.
Pulley
Pulley is an equity and token management platform that helps founders, finance teams, and employees run cap tables, fundraises, valuations, and tax-compliant token distributions from one place - without spreadsheets or paralegal time.
Alyson Watson
Alyson Watson is the CEO and Chair of the Board of Woodard & Curran, a Portland, Maine-based integrated science, engineering, design-build, and operations firm specializing in water and environmental challenges. A Stanford-trained chemical engineer and licensed PE, she became the firm's third CEO in 2021 — and its first woman to hold that title — after more than 20 years leading water resources projects and building environmental consulting teams across the western United States. A self-described 'water brat' with roots in the industry, Watson is a passionate advocate for clean water access, outcome-based contracting, and employee ownership, guiding a firm of 1,300 people across 27 offices nationwide.
Mandy Cabot
Mandy Cabot co-founded Dansko in 1990 from the back of a station wagon and built it into a $140M comfort footwear empire - then gave the whole company to her employees. Now she's running Silk Grass Farms in Belize, a vertically integrated agribusiness sitting atop 24,500 acres of protected rainforest. Chapter three of an already remarkable life.