Lullabot is proud to announce that it is now 100% owned by its employees. Transitioning to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) allows each Lullabot employee the benefit of ownership. Because the stock is held in retirement accounts by a trust, employees don’t incur the tax complications that come with traditional stock ownership. When employees leave or retire, the company buys the stock back from them.
According to Lullabot's CEO, Seth Brown, "We have always believed in equity and inclusion as central tenets of our culture. Becoming 100% employee-owned through an ESOP allows us to take these values to the next level, and show the team we really mean it."
Creating a culture of ownership at Lullabot has been a focus for the company since 2012. The broader vision of Lullabot has been to become an employee-owned company of companies, which began under the leadership of former CEO and Co-Founder, Matt Westgate. Seth Brown stepped into the CEO role last year when Westgate became CEO of Tugboat, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lullabot. Brown, along with Lullabot’s leadership team, continues the mission of fulfilling the vision for Lullabot.
“Our north star has always been that the company's goals can be aligned with the team. I know of no more significant way to demonstrate that than through employee ownership. They all have earned their stake in the outcome," said Westgate.
There are currently more than 10,000 ESOP organizations. To learn more about ESOPs, visit the National Center for Employee Ownership website.