About Us
The mission of the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center (RMEOC) is to build a more just and sustainable economy through employee ownership.
We believe that a just economy is one that works for everyone, that is built upon inclusive and sustainable systems, and that provides equitable opportunity to build wealth. Our current economy benefits too few, at the expense of too many. But employee ownership is a powerful tool to change that.
Since RMEOC’s foundation in 2012, we see growing evidence of success every day as we help more and more businesses become employee owned, creating wealth for working people, helping to close race and gender wealth gaps, and building more sustainable, resilient, and profitable businesses that provide long-term benefit to our communities.
Benefits of Employee Ownership
Types of Employee-Owned Businesses
Alternative Equity Structures (AES)
- Various forms of sharing in company profits and/or future gains
- Examples include stock option plans, direct share ownership, and synthetic equity
- Worker ownership can be partial
Worker Owned Cooperative
- 100% employee owned
- Democratic and transparent decision-making
- Workers share the profits
- Criteria-based membership
Employee-owned Trust (EOT)
- Trust-owned business with benefits to current and future employees
- Protects the mission and operations of the company
- Workers are represented in governance and share profits
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)
- An employee retirement plan
- Stocks are put into a trust to benefit workers when they retire
- Best for large businesses
- Worker ownership can be partial
Why Employee-Owned Business?
Reduce growing wealth inequality
Business ownership is among the most concentrated forms of wealth in the U.S. and the richest 10% of Americans own 71% of total household wealth in the U.S., according to the World Inequality Database (2022). Expanding employee ownership could quadruple the share of wealth held by the bottom 50 percent of Americans.
Build a resilient economy
An employee-owned business is more resilient during an economic crisis; it is 25% more likely to stay in business than a traditional company. It also performs substantially better than non-employee-owned firms when ownership is combined with employee participation. It shares the benefits in good times, and the burdens in hard times.
Create better job opportunities for marginalized communities
EO companies tend to be able to pay higher wages and provide better benefits than their traditional counterparts. Employee-owners have 92% higher household net worth, 33%
higher median incomes, and 53% longer job tenure. This is especially important for communities that otherwise have fewer or worse prospects for building wealth.
Meet Our Talented Team Members
Minsun Ji (Ph.D.)
Executive Director
About Minsun
Minsun Ji (Ph.D.) is a labor-community organizer, activist scholar and popular educator. She has long experience in non-profit management and employee ownership efforts.
Minsun was a graduate program director of the Center for New Directions in Politics and Public Policy in the Political Science Department at the University of Colorado Denver where she created graduate program tracks in the social economy and community-labor organizing to grow leaders of social economy-labor organizing in Colorado. Minsun organized immigrant janitors, immigrant day laborers and domestic workers and she was the founder and the executive director of Denver’s first worker center, El Centro Humanitario para los Trabajadores (Humanitarian Center for Workers).
She served as a research fellow at the Institute for Cooperative Digital Economy at the New School of Social Science, and a J. Robert Beyster Employee Ownership Fellow at the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University. She was also a Colorado Governor’s Commissioner on Employee Ownership (FY 2019-2020) and has been actively engaged in labor-cooperative issues as an Executive Committee Member at the Union-Coop Council of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives (USFWC). Currently, she is also engaged in building worker-owned platform cooperatives in different cities in the U.S. and other countries, in connection with the worker-owned Drivers Cooperative in New York.
Ashley Ortiz
Technical Assistance Director
About Ashley
Ashley Ortiz is the Statewide Technical Assistance Director with Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, with a background of more than 15 years in entrepreneurial business support and a passion for social justice and an equitable economy. Her previous work includes cooperative business development with the Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives in the Bay Area and work as a baker-owner at Arizmendi Bakery in San Rafael. Ashley co-founded the L.A. Co-op Lab, where she now serves as an Advisory Board Member, and she has taught classes about labor/power dynamics and worker-owned cooperatives. In 2019 she was selected for the inaugural cohort of start.coop’s business accelerator program designed to empower entrepreneurs to build transformative, scalable, cooperatively-owned businesses. Ashley earned her bachelors degree in Psychology at the University of Colorado and holds an M.A. in Urban Sustainability focused on social and economic justice from Antioch University.
Erika Iacano
Researcher
About Erika
Erika is a researcher at Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center, where she has a chance to apply her passion for social justice, human rights, and labor rights.
Erika earned her summa cum laude BA in Political Science and International Studies from the University of Colorado, Denver, where she cultivated her dedication to and advocacy for a fairer and more equitable society. She hopes to support workers and communities and advance the cause of employee ownership through her research skills.
Marion Champoux-Pellegrin
Rural Employee Ownership Director
About Marion
Marion Champoux-Pellegrin brings a decade of experience rallying unusual allies toward improving the world of work. Her passion for building an economy that benefits everyone led her to engage in research, safety and profit-sharing advocacy, corporate community programming, and promoting more human management practices. Most recently, she led multi-stakeholder consultations and collaborative planning sessions, facilitating the implementation of decentralized decision-making and better management practices in Canadian unions, associations, municipalities, counties, and community organizations. Before that, Marion supported Burmese small businesses in improving working conditions through an ESG investment fund and accompanied a dental health startup in building its employee and community relations, as well as scaling its operations. She also built and led the community engagement and worker relations department for a large manufacturer in Bangladesh whose programs included community health care, worker education, wage advocacy, health and safety.
Elias Crim
Social Cooperative Program Director
About Elias
Elias Crim is an editor, writer, translator and publisher who founded the national blog Solidarity Hall in 2013 and the podcast Dorothy’s Place (with co-host Pete Davis) in 2017. Solidarity Hall is the publisher of the Reflections of Mondragon founder Fr. Josemaria Arizmendi.
Christopher Arnold
President (Chair)
About Christopher
Christopher believes in cultivating business as a force for good in the world. Having spent the first 17 years of his career working for large corporations, he has first-hand experience with the damaging effects of profit-centered business mindsets. Today, as founder of BRiiO Advisors, Christopher provides sensible leadership and business practices to leaders who care about the success of their team, their community, AND their business.
Jackie Benson
Treasurer
About Jackie
Jackie has two decades of experience counseling entrepreneurs, companies, and investors about corporate transactions and contracts, including organization, mergers and acquisitions, state and federal securities law, private equity, venture capital, financing, restructurings, and other corporate compliance issues and commercial agreements. She has drafted and negotiated complex agreements, advised boards of directors of both public and private companies and prepared private placement documentation for growing companies. Jackie has represented companies before the SEC and PCAOB and has experience with federal securities litigation. Jackie has also run two businesses, so she is able to bring this practical business experience to the table when advising clients.
Abdi Buni
About Abdi
Abdi is a transportation entrepreneur. Since 2010, he has founded three employee-owned taxi companies: Union Taxi Cooperative in Denver with 262 driver owners; Union Taxi in Portland, OR; and Green Taxi Cooperative in Denver with 800 driver-owners. Abdi currently owns and manages Denver ABC Shuttle.
Ruben Medina
About Marion
Ruben was the co-founder of the Huerfano County Ambulance Service in his town of Walsenburg, Colorado. He brings a spirit of servant leadership to RMEOC as he as worked as an EMT-1, a firefighter, and a search and rescue professional. Ruben also worked for the YMCA of Denver for 20 years in a variety of capacities. In addition to serving on many boards and committees, Ruben currently works for the Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities as the Project Manager of the Northwest Aurora/ Montbello Community Engagement. He also has his own consulting company on community engagement and currently works with an NGO out of Nairobi, Kenya. Ruben is a fellow of the ABCD Institute out of DePaul University in Chicago.
Larry Dunn
About Larry
Starting his career as a cubicle coder for ANR Freight Systems and the Colorado Department of Human Services, Larry has been an enthusiast of the cooperative nature of open source software for the last 15 years. He was recognized by the Denver Democrats for building and maintaining their website and automating meeting registration. Larry currently works as a freelance software developer.
Sophie Mariam
About Sophie
Sophie holds a Master’s in Policy from the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of Virginia, where she developed a broad range of research experience analyzing and advocating for labor policy innovations. She grew her commitment to amplifying worker voices while working in the federal policy space, at the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, and while completing her dissertation for the U.S. Department of Education. In her current role as a labor analyst with CFI, Sophie collaborates with partners and labor organizations across the state to research and advance policies for a fair, equitable tax code and an economy that works for all Coloradans.
Yurixhi Toro Rivera
About Yurixhi
Yurixhi was born and raised in Greeley Colorado. She graduated from Colorado State University in 2021 earning a bachelor’s degree in Ethnic Studies and minor in legal studies. Her hobbies are spending time with loved ones, being in nature, boxing, fashion, and self-improvement. As a child, she observed her family members navigate the complex immigration system and always questioned the structures in place that affected our communities. The passion for empowering our communities inspired her academic and career trajectory. She believes it is essential to understand the way particular structures leave a lasting impact and to promote fair and equitable rights for underrepresented communities. She was Fuerza Latina’s community organizer in developing strategies that build power for immigrant community members in Fort Collins, and currently she is a physical health equity coordinator with Adelante Community.
Ahmed El Oumrani
About Ahmed
Ahmed El Oumrani, born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco, embarked on a journey of knowledge and discovery in computer programming. With a passion for technology and insatiable curiosity, he pursued education in Casablanca, where the fusion of culture and technology sparked his love for coding and problem-solving. His education was not just about acquiring technical skills but also about embracing the challenges of the evolving IT landscape.
With a robust educational background, Ahmed ventured into the professional world, contributing his expertise to several companies and a hospital. Each role was a stepping stone, building a career characterized by versatility and a drive to excel. His commitment to the field was solidified by obtaining a certificate in IT security, demonstrating his dedication to digital safety.
Ahmed's entrepreneurial spirit led him to establish a travel services business, reflecting his love for exploration and connecting people globally. A fervent soccer enthusiast, he finds joy in the sport, which mirrors life's dynamism and teamwork. However, his passion for world travel surpasses his love for soccer. Having visited 100 countries across all five continents, Ahmed is a true global citizen, embracing diverse cultures and languages. Fluent in five languages, he embodies multiculturalism and the beauty of human connection.
Motivated and open to different cultures, Ahmed approaches life with an open mind. His journey has been one of growth, learning, and an unwavering commitment to positively impacting every endeavor.
Kathy Rendon
About Kathy
Kathy is an organizer who has spent the last 20 years working in the labor movement and volunteering on Boards of Directors of non-profit organizations in Denver. She served as the Executive Director of Colorado’s largest labor union for five years and has over 12 years in senior management or executive level positions.
Kathy recently formed Rendon Strategies, LLC to leverage her experience to support movement building and non-profit organizations with transformational strategies to increase capacity and strengthen impact.
She was born and raised in Colorado. Kathy earned her B.A. in Political Science at Providence College and has an M.A. in International Development and a Master of Social Work from the University of Denver.
Yousif Yousif
About Yousif
Originally from Sudan, Yousif earned his Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Bahri, Khartoum, where he served as a Researcher, Social Work Lecturer, and Director of the Field Training Department. Yousif’s life goal is to be a productive person who is useful to society by identifying negative phenomena and applying social service theories. After learning about the Drivers Cooperative-CO, Yousif became a leader of change through his active and inspirational support for the coop. As a driver and EO Fellow, Yousif is in charge of outreach strategies focusing on Arabic-speaking communities. Yousif dreams of reuniting his family by bringing his wife and daughter to the U.S. soon.
Trish Unverferth
About Trish
Equipped with a B.S. in Computer Science and two decades of building custom web applications in the corporate and marketing worlds, there’s nothing Trish can’t do. In the past, she successfully ran her own business teaching elementary kids game design and Scratch programming. Cancer tried to defeat her, but she won and went on to develop a passion for servant leadership with the Scouts BSA, where she served as an assistant scoutmaster and active board member. After a few years of learning about the gig economy and driving for Uber and Lyft part-time, Trish specializes in working with diverse communities and non-profits to build the TDC-CO.
Dick Peterson, Founder
About Dick
Dick Peterson spent most of his career as a real estate broker. During this time, he started three employee-owned companies, including Re/Max of Cherry Creek. In 2009 Dick realized the need for an organization that supported the creation of employee-owned companies so he — with the help of Bill Kirton and Larry Dunn — founded the Rocky Mountain Employee Ownership Center. The rest is current history.
Bill Kirton, Founder
About Bill
Bill Kirton is a retired Methodist minister with more than 40-years of experience in community-based, organizational development, including non-profits. He is an experienced writer and communicator. Bill’s interest in and involvement with local schools, local government and local business organizations have played a major role in his professional and service activities.
Sam Dragan
About Sam
Hi! My name is Sam and I am an intern at the RMEOC where my responsibilities revolve mostly around research and some outreach. I am a second year student at the University of Denver studying international studies and economics. My specialization is in global economic affairs and I find international finance fascinating. I am originally from St. Louis and after moving here for school I do not plan on leaving for a while. I really enjoy watching movies and hiking in my free time and am excited to get outside more as the weather gets nicer here!