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Rutgers Appoints 33 Research Fellows to Study a Key Gateway to Wealth for the Middle Class: Employee Share OwnershipThe Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing has announced the appointment of 33 research fellows to join its global network of scholars and subject matter experts. They will explore business models that enable workers to build wealth on top of wages, creating new opportunities to strengthen the middle class and close racial and gender wealth gaps. "If we want to build an economy that provides financial opportunity and security for more people, we need to understand how to include more employees in ownership," said Adria Scharf, Associate Director of the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. "These fellows are advancing understanding of employee share ownership, profit sharing, and similar tools for sharing wealth and profits, in important ways. We are delighted to recognize and support their work." The Institute is the world's leading academic research hub dedicated to employee share ownership, equity compensation, profit sharing, and worker cooperatives. The fellowships are funded by major foundations, employee-owned companies, and individuals interested in growing a critical body of knowledge and a robust field. Selected on a competitive basis, the 2023-24 class is one of the largest and most diverse in the 16-year history of the program:
"Rutgers has built a powerful brain trust of experts across a broad spectrum of backgrounds, all focused on rigorous study of what happens when employees own a fair share of their workplaces," said Melissa Hoover, Senior Fellow in the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing. "This rich laboratory fosters not just excellent scholarship but innovative collaborations that create better companies and better jobs." The Institute recently hosted its annual conference on employee ownership research, one of the world's largest convenings of experts on capital shares in the workplace. In addition to revealing the class of fellows, the Institute announced the winners of its biennial Joyce Rothschild Book Prize, recognizing significant contributions to the advancement of economic democracy:
The Institute presented its highest honor, the Institute Award, to Cindy Turcot in recognition of her decades-long commitment to building employee-owned companies. Turcot is the Past Chair of the Board of Directors of The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation, and she served as president and CEO of the employee-owned Gardener's Supply Company. About the School The Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) is the world's leading source of expertise on managing and representing workers, designing effective organizations, and building strong employment relationships. About the Institute SMLR's Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing conducts empirical research, analyzes policy, and sponsors the leading global fellowship program and academic conferences in the field. The Institute also manages a program to help college professors teach about these subjects (The Curriculum Library for Employee Ownership) and a technical assistance center (The NJ/NY Center for Employee Ownership). The Institute recently launched a Coursera program with short, engaging videos introducing employee ownership and a free, online program, sponsored by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, to help retiring business owners sell to their employees. About the Fellowships The Beyster family established the research fellowship program and the J. Robert Beyster endowed professorship in 2008. With generous support from the Beyster Foundation for Enterprise Development, the Employee Ownership Foundation, and other donors, it has grown to become one of the largest fellowship programs at Rutgers University with more than 200 research fellows and faculty mentors worldwide.
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