Employee ownership and cooperative enterprises save jobs and companies, anchor capital locally, benefit local economies and create new wealth for employee owners. In addition, employee-owned companies improve job security while increasing productivity and enhancing employee motivation, making Ohio’s and the nation’s economies stronger.

Widely regarded as the best one-day conference on employee ownership in the country, Kent State University’s 22nd Annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference on Friday, April 18, will focus on the theme “Job Retention in a Global Economy”. Hosted by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center, the event will feature two distinguished speakers, Joseph Cabral, retired president and chairman of Chatsworth Products Inc., and Dave Heidenreich, chairman and chief technology officer of EBO Group, who will discuss “Employee Ownership, Jobs, Innovation and the Global Economy.” In addition, participants can attend a variety of panels on topics ranging from the basics of employee ownership to repurchase liability and open-book management.

Prior to Chatsworth Products’ successful 1991 divestiture from a Fortune 500 company, Cabral led the operating unit, managing and directing the engineering, manufacturing, marketing/sales, finance/accounting, operations, and human resource functions. With his leadership, 90 employees joined together to orchestrate a buyout of the company using an Employee Stock Ownership Plan or ESOP. The result was an extraordinarily successful, 100 percent employee-owned company that has grown over 1,000 percent since its inception. Currently, Cabralserves as chair of the Employee Ownership Foundation and was former chair of the ESOP Association and the National Cooperative Bank’s Development Corporation.

Heidenreich founded Power Transmission Technology, known as PT Tech, in 1978 to focus on developing drive system products for heavy industry. In 1990, an ESOP was established as the key element of a succession plan to keep PT Tech growing and independent. The company grew through most of the 90’s, with successes in the steel and recycling industries. Due to economic turmoil in heavy industry from 1998 to 2003, PT Tech set up subsidiaries to refocus on the medical and renewable energy markets. In 2006, the company name was changed to EBO Group Inc. (Excellence By Owners), and PT Tech became a subsidiary. A fourth subsidiary was set up in 2007 to develop advanced drive system products for trucks and buses. Today, EBO Group, located in Sharon Center, Ohio is 56 percent employee-owned.

Kent State alumnus Betty Sutton, representing Ohio’s 13th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, is planning to attend the closing reception. Representative Sutton is in her first term in Congress after a number of years of public service that has included a seat on the Barberton City Council, the Summit County Council and two full terms in the Ohio State House of Representatives.

The conference will be held on April 18 from 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. at the Hilton West-Fairlawn, followed by a reception until 6 p.m. Registration begins at 8 a.m. Cost in advance is $85 and at the door $125. For more information, call 330-672-3028 or visit www.kent.edu/oeoc.

In addition this year, there will be a two-day training course on Small Business Succession Planning for Economic Development Professionals on April 17, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and April 18, in tandem with the conference. Provided by Economic Development Professionals, the program will offer an overview of the issues and concepts involved in business succession planning, and tools and resources available to help business. Registration is $85 and includes Thursday’s program as well as the conference on Friday. For more information, visit http://dept.kent.edu/oeoc/spp/Economic%20Development.html.

The Ohio Employee Ownership Center is a non-profit, Kent State-based 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 nearly 14,300 Ohio employees become owners.