OEOC About OEOC >> Staff
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Roy Messing Roy Messing joined the OEOC in 2008 and stepped up to the role of Interim Director on July 1, 2012. While at the OEOC he has been responsible for the development of worker-owned cooperatives and been involved in the Business Succession Planning Program. Roy came to the Center with a background as a community-based lender, having provided financial services to the cooperative member/owners of Farm Credit Services of West Michigan. He served as CFO for Montville Plastics and Rubber Company, and before that spent 23 years in finance/commercial banking, holding a wide variety of roles as a calling officer and manager in various financial institutions. He has a BS in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and an MBA (finance concentration) from the University of Dayton (Ohio). In 2010, Roy received his Certified Exit Planning Advisor designation, to better serve the center's clients who are planning the transition of their business. Roy travels widely across Ohio, speaking on the topics of ownership succession and business planning. In addition, he has delivered presentations on unique private business to worker cooperative model that was developed and deployed by the center.
 Bill McIntyre After serving as OEOC Director since the sudden passing of Director and founder John Logue in 2009, Bill McIntyre stepped down from the director's position effective July 1, 2012. He continues to work with the Center as a Program Coordinator, a position which will allow him to concentrate more of this time on issues of interest. McIntyre was the President of the ESOP Small Business Services consulting firm. Prior to that, for over 15 years, he was the Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer for ComSonics, Inc., in Harrisonburg, Virginia, a cable TV equipment manufacturer and repairer. While at ComSonics, Bill was a member of the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, the ESOP Administrative Committee, the ESOP Employee Advisory Committee (two years), and served as an ESOP Trustee. Further, Bill was responsible for the internal administration of the company's ESOP. Prior to joining ComSonics, Bill worked as a Senior Management Consultant for Arthur Andersen & Company; then as Manager of Financial Analysis for Perdue, Inc.; as Corporate Controller for American Safety Razor Company; and as Chief Financial Officer for Weinschel Engineering, Inc. In addition, he has served as an Instructor in the School of Accounting at James Madison University. Bill has also served on the Board of Directors of ShenVentures, Inc., a small venture capital firm in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Bill has also served on the ESOP Association's Board of Governors, the Chapter Council Executive Committee, the Advisory Committee on ESOP Administration and was Vice President of the Western Virginia Region of the MidAtlantic Chapter of the ESOP Association as well as President of the MidAtlantic Chapter. Bill has a BA in Psychology from Cornell University and has an MBA with a concentration in Accounting and Finance from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. He is a CPA and a member of the Institute of Management Accountants.
Jim Anderson Jim joined the OEOC staff in 2007, and is responsible for the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry Project. Evergreen is a precedent-setting organization in which inner city low income people will be members of an employee-owned cooperative that provides commercial laundry services to large, anchor institutions in Cleveland, such as the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals as well as nearby nursing homes. Ideally the laundry will be the first of several such efforts. Previously, Jim was CEO of 100% ESOP-owned Republic Storage systems in Canton
BS, Shepherd College (1964) in economics and graduate study in Economics at the University of Delaware. Clem joined the OEOC staff in June 1998 after a career in the labor movement which included twenty-eight years with the United Rubber Workers' research department; he served as URW Research and International Director from 1977 to 1995. Subsequent to the URW's merger with the Steelworkers in 1995, Clem worked in the Research and Benefits Department of the USWA. Clem's initial areas of work for the OEOC include technical assistance in buyout situations, safety training in employee-owned firms, and basic ownership and financial education for union members.
Chris is a Program Coordinator at the OEOC and is primarily involved with the Center's Business Succession Planning Program at Kent State University. He is a regular speaker and trainer on the topic to business owners, chambers of commerce, trade associations, and other professional organizations, and has been interviewed numerous times by various media entities. He is a regular contributor on the COSE Mindspring website (an online resource for small business in NE Ohio), the Small Business Advocacy Blog of the Small Business Advocacy Council in Chicago, and formerly to Slate.com's BizBox small business blog. In 2010, Chris was designated a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) from the Exit Planning Institute (EPI). Chris is also active in various Center training programs on employee ownership, including annual Employee Owner Retreats and the annual Ohio Employee Ownership Conference. He is spearheading the OEOC's forays into new media and technology, including video, podcasting, and social media, and also coordinates the OEOC's own blog. Chris is also responsible for the design and layout of the OEOC's publications, flyers, newsletter, and other printed materials, and is the webmaster for this site as well as the Capital Ownership Group (COG) site. Prior to joining the Center, he spent over 15 years working in various capacities in small, family-owned, and closely-held businesses in the hospitality and foodservice industries; he is a graduate of Kent State's Political Science program, and worked at SEIU Local 47 in Cleveland, OH.
Kelley Fitts
Jay Simecek Prior to joining the OEOC staff, Jay enjoyed a varied career spanning 25 years in executive positions, most of which he spent leading an ESOP company. Jay's dedication to employee ownership led him to national involvement in The ESOP Association as President of the Ohio Chapter, member of the Executive Committee of the State and Regional Chapter Council, and member of the Association's Strategic Planning Committee. He has authored articles, designed education materials, and conducted training on employee owner leadership issues. Jay, born and raised in the greater Cleveland area, attended John Carroll University, served in the US Air Force, and began his career in the Information Systems industry. He first encountered employee ownership as he recognized the opportunity to develop a succession plan for the principal of a privately held, family owned firm. As Vice-President and General Manager he orchestrated its buyout and transition to an ESOP then stayed on to lead the firm for 15 years. For the Center, Jay provides basic technical direction for those anticipating ownership change in their company and considering an ESOP for the first time. In addition, His strength is his hands-on experience with leading an organization into employee ownership and managing a culture change. Jay is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA). As such, his focus is expanding Succession Planning programs for small business owners, creating new ESOP's and training existing employee owners.
Felicia Wetzig Felicia Wetzig joined the OEOC as a Program Intern in June of 2012 after working as a student employee for the Center during the Spring semester. She has participated in training and attended sessions led by Bob Cohen to expand her knowledge of cooperatives and has begun working cooperative development projects with Chris Cooper. With a MA in Public History from Kent State University, she came to the center with experience in research writing and presenting information in a variety of forms. She will also be helping to develop the Center's presence on the web to expand our influence and provide more ways to communicate with potential clients.
John Logue (1947-2009)
OEOC Founder; Director 1987-2009; Professor of Political Science, Kent State University, 1977-2009
BA University of Texas (1970); MA Princeton (1973); Ph.D. Princeton (1976). Shortly after joining the Kent State faculty in 1977, Logue became involved in the effort to avert the Youngstown steel mill shutdowns. Logue began research concerning the use of employee ownership as a strategy for job creation and retention in Ohio in 1984. He founded the OEOC in 1987 with grants from the Cleveland and Gund Foundations and the Ohio Department of Development to provide information and preliminary technical assistance for Ohioans exploring employee ownership, and directed the expansion of its programs to include Ohio's Employee Owned Network, a multi-company training program in 1989, and developing single-company ownership training programs in 1990.
Logue served on the boards of directors of Reuther Mold and Manufacturing, Cuyahoga Falls, OH, and Sharpsville Quality Products, Sharpsville, PA, as an outside director for the ESOP. He wrote widely on employee ownership and workplace democracy in the United States and Scandinavia including, most recently, co-editing Transitions to Capitalism and Democracy in Russia and Central Europe: Achievements, Problems, Prospects (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000); and co-authoring Participatory Employee Ownership: How It Works (Pittsburgh: Worker Ownership Institute, 1998); The Real World of Employee Ownership (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001); Modern Welfare States: Scandinavian Politics and Policy in the Global Age, 2nd edition (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003); and Productivity in cooperatives and worker-owned enterprises: Ownership and participation make a difference! (Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Organization, 2005). Logue was the Ohio Council of Cooperatives' "Ohio Cooperative Educator of the Year" in 2003; won the Ford Foundation's "Leadership for a Changing World" award in 2003; and received a Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa, from Alvernia College in 2005 for his work with employee ownership.
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