With major companies like Harley-Davidson offering them, employee stock ownership plans are on a very clear rise to prominence. Verit Advisors founder and CEO Mary Josephs – one of Mergers & Acquisitions’ 2021 Top 25 Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A – shares her expert insight into the driving forces behind this trend.

Employee ownership offers a “win-win-win,” Josephs says. “You get the culture and engagement, and you get the thoughts and ideas from people who are on the line and working.” Josephs spoke to editor-in-chief Mary Kathleen Flynn about how private equity firms are embracing employee ownership strategies. KKR was a pioneer. “Pete Stavros was taking a drive-along with one of the truck drivers,” Josephs said, referring to KKR’s co-head of Americas private equity. “And the driver says to him, ‘You know, if I was paid differently and not by miles but by some other metric of efficiency, I could get this done a lot quicker.” Watch the video interview, which was featured at M&A’s Most Influential Women Speak virtual event on Feb. 24.

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