Description

Equity compensation is a standard practice across the corporate world. But very often, it’s just the C-suite and upper level management who are allowed to participate and capture the gains. Frontline workers, particularly women and people of color, are often excluded from this wealth-building opportunity. This panel will highlight examples and practices that reverse this trend so that equity compensation is equitable and so that the frontline workers, who are key to driving profits, also see a return for their contributions.

Speakers

Anna-Lisa Miller

Founding Executive Director, Ownership Works

Anna-Lisa Miller joined Ownership Works in August 2021 and serves as its founding Executive Director. She is responsible for the organization’s strategy, key partnerships, growth, and overall impact. Anna-Lisa’s career reflects a longstanding commitment to expanding shared ownership, advancing racial equity, and driving systemic change within business, government, and social structures. As an experienced nonprofit leader, she has a proven track record of developing organizations, programs, and partnerships that create social returns for stakeholders and communities. Previously, Anna-Lisa served as the Development Director at Project Equity, a peer organization that helps local businesses and communities discover the power of employee ownership. Prior to this role, Anna-Lisa served as Chief Operating Officer of The Kohala Center, a Hawaii-based sustainable development organization, where she led teams to success across a diverse portfolio of programs spanning shared ownership to watershed restoration. In that role, she also served on the Executive Committee of the Hawaii Lieutenant Governor’s Farm to School Program, for which she received recognition from the Hawaii State Senate.

Anna-Lisa began her career as a corporate attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She practiced law for five years in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. in the areas of corporate and public finance. In 2014, she transitioned to the nonprofit sector to pursue her passion for expanding economic opportunity.

Anthony Cimino

Vice President and Head of Policy, Carta

(Bio forthcoming)

 

Barbara Baksa

Executive Director, National Association of Stock Plan Professionals

Barbara Baksa serves as executive director for the National Association of Stock Plan Professionals (NASPP) and is a respected leader in the field of stock compensation. She is an acknowledged expert in the tax laws, accounting principles, and securities laws that apply to stock compensation programs, as well as design and administrative considerations for these plans. She is frequently quoted on stock compensation-related topics in both local and national media.

Barbara has authored numerous white papers, articles, chapters, and books on stock compensation and is a sought-after speaker on equity compensation related topics. She writes weekly for the NASPP Blog and publishes a series of YouTube videos on equity compensation. She has served as editor of “The NASPP Advisor” newsletter since 2004 and served as co-editor for “The Corporate Executive,” published by CCRCorp, from 2006 to 2019.

Barbara began her career in equity compensation over 25 years ago. She is a Certified Equity Professional and serves on the curriculum committee and the advisory board of the CEP Institute at Santa Clara University. She also is executive fellow of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations. Barbara has a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Iowa.

Robert Patricelli

Senior Advisor, InTandem Capital Partners

(bio forthcoming)

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Moderator

Joseph Blasi

Director, Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing 

Joseph Blasi is the J. Robert Beyster Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University and Director of the Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing at Rutgers University. The Institute is the world’s largest academic institute addressing all forms of capital shares for employees and citizens, including broad-based equity compensation plans, ESOPs, worker cooperatives, citizen dividend programs, profit sharing, and gain sharing. It sponsors empirical research, a competitive fellowship program, academic conferences, a Shares Laboratory, a curriculum library, and a policy analysis unit. 

Blasi is author of The Citizens Share (Yale University Press, 2014), Shared Capitalism at Work (NBER and University of Chicago Press, 2010), In the Company of Owners (2003, Basic Books), and The New Owners: Employee Ownership in Publicly-traded Companies (1990, HarperCollins), with colleagues, among other books and articles. He was Visiting Professor at Princeton University (2014-2015), Yale University (1997-1998), and a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study. He is a faculty member in the School of Management and Labor Relations and is an economic sociologist with an Ed.D. from Harvard University.