I am proud to share that Ten28 Holdings has made a majority investment in Certified Employee-Owned. As part of this exciting step, we are welcoming Joe Belsterling into the role of President. This is a major milestone for Certified EO and another step towards our vision of building an employee-owned economy.
Kramer and I launched Certified Employee-Owned in 2017 to help companies unlock the competitive advantages of employee ownership. Over the past seven years, we’ve grown our network to over 700 companies - nearly 10% of all ESOPs across the United States. I’m proud of the work we’ve done with our Members and the visibility we’ve created for employee ownership. For all the success we’ve seen, I think Certified EO remains at the beginning of its journey.
With millions of businesses reaching critical inflection points in the coming years as part of the Silver Tsunami, employee attrition and churn trending consistently higher, and the ever increasing wealth gap, the employee ownership community is reaching a critical juncture and employee-owned companies have an increasingly important role to play in the future of the economy. Now is the time to invest heavily in the next chapter of growth for Certified EO to accelerate this vision.
Joe brings extensive and relevant leadership to Certified EO. He most recently founded and served as CEO of MajorClarity, an education technology and career certification company. Under Joe’s guidance, MajorClarity launched national career readiness benchmarking initiatives, built a best-in-class customer success team that achieved the highest student usage rates in their space across the U.S., and grew to serve over 6.5M students at 5,000 schools. He shares our passion for employee ownership, which is why Ten28 Holdings has invested in Certified EO.
I’m confident that Joe’s expertise, skillset, and commitment to our mission and vision will help Certified EO continue its growth and success into our next chapter. In the coming months, Kramer and I will transition to advisory roles. We are excited to see Certified EO reach new heights.
