Bret Keisling is joined by Daniel Goldstein, one of the leading voices in ESOPs and employee ownership today, who shares his insights on the transformative impact of ESOPs, fostering employee ownership, enhancing community welfare, and promoting business sustainability. Daniel addresses challenges faced by ESOPs, the significance of education and communication within organizations, and the role of employee ownership in addressing racial wealth disparities. Daniel emphasizes the importance of implementing EO across diverse industries and communities and its importance in rural areas for driving long-term employee wealth, business resilience, and economic stability.
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Episode 278 Show Notes
About Daniel Goldstein
At the end of 2023, Daniel Goldstein retired as CEO and President of Folience, a 100% ESOP-owned holding company. The company published the first edition of their newspaper on January 10, 1883, started a partial ESOP in 1986 and became 100% ESOP-owned in 2012. Today Folience is a holding company that includes a number of diversified businesses.
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Daniel Goldstein joined Folience in 2016 to transform the company and diversify its revenue base through acquisitions. As of 2020, 520 employee owners work in Folience’s media businesses (including the Cedar Rapids Gazette), ambulance manufacturer, and high-end horse and livestock trailer manufacturer.
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In April 2024, Daniel was on a panel at the Employee Ownership Ideas Forum co-sponsored by the Aspen Institute's Equal Opportunities Program and the Rutgers University Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.Â
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He currently serves on the Boards of other ESOPs, all involved in different aspects of manufacturing, including M-7 Technologies, which became an ESOP in 2024. Daniel was recently elected to the Board of The National Center for Employee Ownership. Daniel is an Executive Fellow at the Rutgers University Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing and a Fellow at Ownership at Work, a UK-based think tank.
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Previously, Daniel has served on the Board of the Employee Ownership Expansion Network (EOX), as a Trustee of the Employee Ownership Foundation (EOF), on the Board of The ESOP Association (TEA), and was given an award by TEA as the Outstanding Board of Governors Member in 2020.
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Daniel’s prior 20 years of executive leadership includes owning his own businesses, acquisitions, joint ventures, managing financial investment portfolios, business and real estate management, and serving on Boards. Throughout his career, Daniel has guest lectured at universities across the US and Europe and has spoken at or chaired over 100 professional conferences across five continents.Â
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Standard Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are my own and don't represent those of my own firms or the organizations to which I belong. Nothing in the podcast should be construed as guidance or advice of any kind in any field and the fact that I mentioned an organizational website or an advocate or a company on a podcast does not reflect an endorsement, but if you've heard your name or your group's name mentioned on this podcast, I'd love to have you come on and talk about it yourself.