St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative
Owning Our Future: Growing Employee Ownership in St. Louis
When employees have a meaningful ownership stake and a voice in decision-making, businesses can become engines of shared wealth. Business owners can plan for succession while protecting their legacy. The region can retain jobs and keep wealth rooted locally.
“About 70% of business owners across the St. Louis region are at or nearing retirement, but only about 25% have concrete [transition] plans.”
St. Louis Public Radio, 2022
Launched in 2026, the St. Louis Employee Ownership Initiative—powered by MOCEO and WEPOWER—is building a coordinated regional ecosystem to expand employee ownership and governance. Its first focus is business conversions: helping more succession-ready businesses explore pathways to become employee-owned.
Through this growing initiative, partners work to:
- build awareness and lead outreach efforts;
- educate business owners preparing for succession;
- identify promising St. Louis-rooted companies;
- connect companies to financing and technical assistance;
- strengthen the local ecosystem needed to sustain employee ownership;
- grow regional awareness of employee ownership as a tool for transformational
- economic development and workforce development.
Owning Our Future Business Luncheon
July 23, 2026
Join MOCEO, WEPOWER, and the Koch Center for Family Enterprise for a business luncheon focused on employee ownership, succession, and the future of locally rooted businesses in St. Louis.
