In this episode of Owners at Work, we talk with Zoe Schlag of Common Trust and Mark Hand of the Purpose Trust Ownership Network about the rising momentum behind Employee Ownership Trusts (EOTs) in the U.S. Zoe shares how Common Trust supports mission-driven founders transitioning to employee ownership, while Mark discusses his research, organizing work, and The Stakeholder newsletter. We explore real-world EOT transitions—from Clegg Auto to Live Oak Living—and how the model offers a flexible, values-driven alternative to traditional exits. The episode also previews PTON’s first national conference in 2026 and the growing ecosystem supporting purpose trust ownership.
Mark Hand is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he teaches and writes about democratic theory, employee ownership, and workplace democracy. Mark is also the founder of The Stakehold, a weekly newsletter on employee ownership, and is a board member of the Texas Center for Employee Ownership and the Purpose Trust Ownership Network. Before graduate school Mark made, managed, and supported investments in over 40 ventures through First Light Ventures, the Oxford Seed Fund, the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, and UnLtd USA. He spent his early career in community development, including co-founding Manna Project International's community development site outside of Quito, Ecuador.
Zoe Schlag is a co-founder and Managing Partner at Common Trust and has spent her career as an entrepreneur and investor. Prior to Common Trust, Zoe served as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Eric Schmidt’s family office. Zoe began her career in the international development world, working with ex-guerrilla fighters on an organic coffee farm in Guatemala, and later with child laborers and their families in rural Argentina, before transitioning into impact investing in India. Over Zoe’s career, she has worked with mission-driven founders and investors from seed through growth and exit. Zoe is an Aspen Ideas Scholar at the Aspen Institute, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and holds a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.
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This episode of the Owners At Work podcast is sponsored by GBQ. Headquartered in Columbus, OH, GBQ Capital Advisors provides a full range of valuation and ESOP advisory services to clients nationwide, including pre-ESOP planning, feasibility studies, formations, valuations, and transactions.
The Owners at Work Podcast is a continuation of the biannual Owners at Work Newsletter which ran for 19 years (1990-2019). We are hoping to continue the same conversations and focus on providing updates on everything employee ownership. We plan to interview practitioners with expertise in different facets of employee ownership, academics doing new and interesting research, and most importantly, individuals who have a personal experience with employee ownership, including current and former employee-owners, mid-level to C suite management, and selling owners.
We want to produce a show that engages with relevant questions and provides practical lessons and information. We want this podcast to include the voices of those who practice employee-ownership each and every day. To that end we want to hear from you! We want to highlight what you are doing, whether you are an employee-owned company, a practitioner, or researcher.
***Please reach out via email: oeoc@kent.edu
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