A business exit strategy is not always about retirement, life can change at any time. It's important to plan now for the future.

About This Event

Join the Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership as we hear from Doug Harmon, Board Chair, Twin City Die Casting, a 102-year-old business that was family-owned for 50 years, with locations in Minneapolis and Monticello, MN, and Watertown, SD. Doug and his brother were co-owners and jointly ran the business until his brother died of cancer in 2005. Doug made the decision to step into the CEO role due to the strength of his management team. After ten years and at the age of sixty-four he knew then that he needed to develop an exit strategy. He was aware that this process could take two to three years.

Doug considered selling to a private equity firm as well as an ESOP. He decided to sell to the ESOP since he intended to continue working and didn’t want to work for someone else, the transaction costs and value were comparable, and selling to an ESOP would reward his employees as well as maintain his family legacy. Doug will discuss why he is selling the company to the ESOP in stages, what the sale process was like and how his employees have started to act and think like owners.

An exit strategy is not always about retirement. As in this case, one of the 5 D’s - Death, Divorce, Disability, Disagreement, and Distress, can happen at any time. Are you ready with a strategy that ensures your future and that of your employees and company?

Debra Linder, Partner, Fredrikson & Byron, P.A., and Neil Brozen, Co-founder, Ventura, ESOP Fiduciary Services, will provide an overview of Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) basics, as well as the implementation process.

The Minnesota Center for Employee Ownership is a 501c3 non-profit that exists solely as a source of education and resources about the different forms of employee ownership.

Speakers: Debra Linder, Sue Crockett, Doug Harmon, and Neil Brozen