While continually evolving to reflect the best knowledge and experience regarding leadership of employee-owned companies, our agenda invites practice around the following principles:
CEOs, presidents, and their designated successors at ESOP companies are invited to apply to this unique program. Our goals are to enhance ESOP company leadership as a core component of ESOP company success; to provide ESOP leaders with an environment where they can share their successes and challenges with other ESOP company leaders; and to build a wide network of ESOP leaders who can continue to be a resource to one another long after the formal program ends.
Our agenda includes two intensive, week-long on-campus sessions July 13-18, 2025 and December 7-11, 2025, and structured visits to participants’ companies in between. The on-site component, and the small size of each cohort, is essential to its effectiveness: each program participant teaches their peers what challenges their respective companies are facing and what practices drive their success. This on-site learning reflects that we learn by doing, and we teach one another.
We draw our faculty from various schools and departments at Penn as well as leading universities and firms throughout the country. The core faculty also have deep roots in employee ownership, with connections that extend back to the late 1970s, and they have well-established commitments to advancing the theory and practice of employee ownership in the United States and abroad.
Our 2025 cohort is full. If you are interested in joining the waitlist for 2025, or for applying to our 2026 offering, please complete this interest form.
Since 2003, CEOs, presidents, and their designated successors at employee-owned companies have been learning from Penn faculty. There is no other program like it, and the CEOs who have participated lead some of the most innovative and successful companies in the employee ownership community.
“This program is a must for any incoming, high-potential and seasoned CEOs who would be interested in growing.”
Dave Wright, Hunter-Davisson
“This program presentation was the best leadership course for the ESOP CEOs. I have personally grown as an individual, made more lifelong connections with other CEOs, and have been set on a path to be a successful and effective leader!”
Heather Braimbridge-Cox, Windings
“The leadership program was a transformative experience that equipped me with essential skills and insights. I gained a deeper understanding of effective communication, collaboration, and decision-making. The program fostered a supportive environment that encouraged self-reflection and personal growth. Through interactive workshops and engaging discussions with fellow participants, I developed new strategies for leading with empathy and purpose. Overall, this program has inspired me to embrace a more inclusive and visionary approach to leadership, positively impacting both my professional and personal life.”
Rebecca Gray, Gardener's Supply
“A powerful program which will help any CEO take their game to the next level!”
Bob Dill, formerly of Hisco
Leadership
Leadership matters. Leadership—like ownership—must be distributed widely throughout the enterprise, but the unique role of the CEO as the leader of the employee-owned firm cannot be minimized and needs to be supported. We are deeply focused on leadership development and network-building for current and incoming CEOs and presidents of employee-owned companies.
Program
The program is distinguished by a combination of extraordinary participant interactions, provocative presentations, and thoughtful feedback. Participants discuss what matters to them. A special atmosphere is created where robust discussions promote meaningful relationships among participants that serve an ongoing resource—personally and professionally—for participants long after the university’s formal program ends.
Faculty
Faculty with deep knowledge of and experience with employee-owned companies is essential for a world-class educational program if it is to be useful and transformative for ESOP leaders and their companies. Equally important are faculty who can facilitate the kinds of discussions that enable CEOs to share who they are and what they know with their peers throughout the country. Program founders Andrew Lamas, JD and Dr. Virginia Vanderslice, both of whom have organized, collaborated on, and taught in this program since 2003, and who have been teaching at Penn since 1990, will co-lead again in 2025.
Learning
Leaders drawn to this are special because they are undaunted by the challenge of self-reflection. They believe that searching deeply within themselves for foundational values is key to the external expression of the many dimensions of leadership. They believe that lifelong learning—and teaching one another—is essential for personal growth and for the success of the employee-owned enterprises that they lead.
Interest Form
If you are a current or incoming ESOP President or CEO, complete this form to express your interest to be on the waitlist for this year or for next year