Description
Employee ownership has gained increasing recognition and support from investors in recent years. However, attracting scaled institutional capital remains a challenge for the field. The perceived complexity of employee ownership, uncertainty about returns, regulatory and fiduciary challenges, and a lack of understanding about how the model works pose significant challenges to capital market adoption. In this conversation from the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, panelists discuss the current state of employee ownership investment and examine how institutional investors, asset owners, and allocators can bring forward the investment the field needs to grow.
Speakers
- Ted Margarit, Managing Partner, Paralign Capital Partners
- Catherine Toner, Managing Director of Impact Investing, Gary Community Ventures
- Lindsey Zizumbo, Executive Director, Sorenson Impact Foundation
- Moderator: Alison Lingane, Founder, Ownership Capital Labs
Related Resources
- A Housing Finance Investment Model Sparks Hope For Black Wealth
- Business Owners Looking to Sell Can Use ESOPs to Their Advantage
- Employee ownership-focused private equity firm
- Impact Investing, Gary Community Ventures
- Investing in innovative social entrepreneurs with Lindsay Zizumbo, Executive Director of Sorenson Impact Foundation
- Ownership Capital Lab
- Paralign Capital Partners
- “Retiring Baby Boomers Can Turn Workers into Owners: Securing American Business Ownership through Employee Ownership.” by Alison Lingane
- The Evolution of Impact Investing: A Q&A with Sorenson Impact Institute CEO Katie Macc and ImpactAlpha Founder and Editor David Bank
About the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum
This video comes from the third Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted by the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. Our 2025 forum, “From Workers to Owners,” highlighted how the experience of ownership changes the reality of work for workers. The forum featured companies in a range of business sectors and explored how employee ownership fits their business strategy and approach to business leadership. The particular role employee ownership can play in supporting business success was discussed , and the role institutional investors can play in improving capital access for employee ownership conversions and expansions was also considered.
For clips and highlights from the Forum, subscribe to the Economic Opportunities Program on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@aspeneop/
And tune in to our podcast to listen to full discussions on the go: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aspeneop
For more from the Forum — including audio, transcripts, and additional resources — visit:
SPEAKERS BRIEFS VIDEOS PHOTOS AGENDA
