Why These Harvard Business School Graduates Chose Worker Ownership Over Wall Street

What makes an HBS graduate choose the worker ownership path? And how can business schools encourage more of them to do it? In this fireside chat from the TOP25 Worker Ownership Conference, three Harvard Business School alumni share how they ended up working in or championing broad-based employee ownership: • Courtney Funk (ButcherJoseph & Co.) changed her post-graduation plans after one course changed how she saw business. She now works in ESOP investment banking. • Robert Lane (Allied) tried to implement broad-based equity at a major publicly traded construction firm twice and was blocked both times. He founded his own company, built it to a 13.5x return, and put tens of millions into frontline workers' hands. • Anne Arlinghaus (KKR) explains how KKR went from experimenting with broad-based ownership in its industrials portfolio to making it a firm-wide strategy. Key questions: • What does it take to direct talented business graduates toward the ownership ecosystem? • Can private equity genuinely champion worker ownership? KKR says yes. • What do real financial returns from employee ownership look like? • What cases, courses, and models should business schools be building? Highlights: • 0:00 Introduction by Tony Guidotti (The Ownership Project, HBS) • 1:02 Moderator introduction: Ethan Rouen, HBS • 2:03 Courtney Funk: From business school to ESOP banking (ButcherJoseph & Co.) • 4:18 Robert Lane: Building a field-first employee ownership culture (Allied) • 6:56 Anne Arlinghaus: How KKR made broad-based ownership a core strategy Learn more about the conference and The Ownership Project at HBS: https://www.hbs.edu/bigs/about/resear... #EmployeeOwnership #HarvardBusinessSchool #BusinessEducation #ESOP #KKR #WorkerOwnership #Leadership