Too many small business owners don’t have a realistic plan for how to exit their business, earn a decent retirement income, and preserve the legacy they’ve built and the jobs they’ve created.
Jay Ward was like many of those small business owners—he was nearing retirement and didn’t know what to do with the business that four generations of his family had been building since 1890. At the height of the pandemic, his company worked with a group of advisors that led them through the transition process of selling the business to his employees, accessing financing and executing a transaction. Now, over two years later, Ward Lumber Worker Cooperative is a thriving, growing business owned and controlled by all the worker-owners.
Rutgers University organized a free webinar, which took place on Nov. 9, 2023, to share Ward Lumber’s story. Watch the recording below to learn why exit planning and employee ownership are so important for business owners to consider right now, and hear the story of Ward Lumber Worker Cooperative from Jay Ward and advisors from the Cooperative Development Institute.
About the Speakers:
Jay Ward was the President and 4th generation owner of Ward Lumber until March of 2021. In 2021, Ward realized a long term vision of transitioning his family owned, 130-year-old company to employee ownership through a worker-owned cooperative (as opposed to an ESOP). The company is now directly owned by more than 40 of the 60 employee team members. Jay is working for the employee team as the CEO and reports to the worker-owned cooperative board of directors made up of employee owners.
Rob Brown is the director of Business Ownership Solutions at the Cooperative Development Institute. He is a nationally recognized expert in the field of cooperative ownership transitions and transaction development, and has assisted dozens of companies to explore, assess, structure and execute worker cooperative conversions. Rob has developed extensive programs of education, training, coaching and technical assistance for boards, management and members in new worker-owned cooperatives, and leads programs at the local, regional, and national level to educate and advise business owners on the exit planning process and options.
Heather Foran is a Cooperative Development Specialist in CDI’s Business Ownership Solutions (BOS) program. Heather comes from an experiential education background with both youth and adults. She co-founded the Field Academy, a traveling high school program and prior to coming to CDI, Heather worked with Coverdale O.D., a U.K.-based organization providing experiential training programs for leaders that build skills in shared leadership and systems transformation. Heather is also part of a global collaborative of facilitators with YES!, an organization that works at the intersection of personal, interpersonal, and systemic change.