Serving on the Board of an ESOP Company: What's Different, What's the Same, What Do I Need to Know?

Alex Moss is a founder and past president of Praxis, where he advises employee-owned, nonprofit, and mission-driven clients in fully engaging employees to drive organizational performance. His expertise includes ownership culture, strategy, governance, leadership, and workforce education and engagement, and he is a frequent speaker and author on these matters.

He is a Trustee of the Employee Ownership Foundation and a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Center for Employee Ownership, and of both the Board of Directors and the Board of Governors of The ESOP Association. He has chaired The ESOP Association's professional advisory committees on Fiduciary Issues and on Ownership Culture, and he has served the employee ownership community in numerous other capacities.

Alex serves as a board of directors member of three ESOP companies, and chairs two of those. He has served on the boards of a number of cooperative and nonprofit community organizations, and he previously managed the social enterprise initiatives of a nonprofit community organization. He holds a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management (MPPM) from the Yale School of Management and an AB from Brown University.

Cindy Turcot Retired

Retired in 2023, Cindy Turcot was the past CEO and President of Gardener’s Supply Company (GSC) headquartered in Burlington, Vermont. GSC is the leading online retailer and cataloger of home gardening products and has five retail garden centers. GSC has had an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) since 1987 and became 100% ESOP owned in 2009. Cindy was with the company since its inception and held many roles. She was instrumental in the ESOP transition and was a driving force for a strong employee ownership culture.

Cindy continues her work in the employee ownership community as an advocate both nationally and internationally and frequently speaks on this topic. In addition, Cindy has been very active locally and nationally in government advocacy for legislation including tax incentives in support of employee ownership.

Cindy is past Chair of the national ESOP Association and past Chair of the Employee Ownership Foundation, both out of Washington DC. She was the founding Chair of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center which started in 2001. Cindy also serves on the Board of Directors of five ESOP-owned companies.

Cindy was the recipient of the Life Service Award from the ESOP Association in 2023 and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility in 2021.

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