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������’s Ohio Employee Ownership Center (OEOC) will host the 30th Annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference on Friday, April 29, at the Hilton West in Fairlawn, Ohio. The theme for the conference is “Celebrating Three Decades of Success: Growing the Employee Ownership Future.”

Participants at the conference will hear from keynote speaker J. Michael Keeling, president and chief staff officer of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) Association. Keeling has been well engaged in employee ownership, assuming his current role in 1991. He will share his experience and insights into the history of employee ownership over the past three decades and the potential direction of this industry moving forward.

Widely regarded as the best one-day conference on employee ownership in the country, this annual event brings together employee owners, management and shop floor workers to learn how to improve the performances of their companies. In addition to programming for existing employee-owned companies, the conference also has a track of sessions for business owners exploring whether selling to employees can be part of a successful ownership strategy.

The conference also attracts community and economic development professionals, government officials, nonprofit organizations, students and professional service providers. Over the course of the day, 17 panels (some featuring CEOs from several of Ohio’s employee-owned companies) will provide participants with the opportunity to learn more about topics ranging from the basics of employee ownership to more technical issues, such as current legal and fiduciary issues, ESOPs acquisitions of other companies, and the financial aspects of employee ownership, to how employee-owned companies impact the communities in which they operate.

The conference will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. on Friday, April 29, at the Hilton in Fairlawn, Ohio, followed by a reception until 6 p.m. Registration begins at 8 a.m. The cost is $195 in advance and $225 at the door.

Kent State’s OEOC is a non-profit program established in 1987 to provide outreach, information and preliminary technical assistance to Ohio employees and business owners interested in exploring employee ownership. Since its inception, the OEOC has helped more than 15,000 Ohio employees become owners.

For more information on the conference, call 330-672-3028 or visit

For more information on Kent State’s Ohio Employee Ownership Center, visit .

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Media Contacts:
Chris Cooper, ccooper1@kent.edu, 330-672-3028
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907