In this episode of Owners at Work, we talk with Michael Darger, an economic development specialist with the University of Minnesota Extension, about business succession planning, ownership transition, and the growing importance of preserving locally owned businesses as Baby Boomer owners retire. Michael discusses the critical role economic developers can play in helping communities retain businesses, support ownership transitions, and build long-term local wealth. We also explore findings from the Minnesota Business Succession and Transition Study, including why many owners delay succession planning despite recognizing its importance, the role of advisory networks in successful transitions, and the barriers that continue to slow employee ownership adoption.
Michael Darger is an Extension Specialist in Community Economics with the University of Minnesota Extension, where he has spent more than two decades working on business retention, expansion, succession & transition, and community economic development. Since 2021, he has led the University’s research and programming focused on business succession and transition, including the widely cited Minnesota Business Succession and Transition Study examining owner readiness, planning behavior, and transfer pathways among businesses with 5–500 employees. Before joining the University of Minnesota in 2004, Darger worked in local economic development, nonprofit community development, commercial banking, and corporate finance. His work focuses on helping communities retain locally owned businesses, strengthen local economies, and prepare for the coming wave of ownership transitions as Baby Boomer and Generation X business owners retire.
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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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