This OPEN MINDS Executive Roundtable was delivered on January 18, 2024 by Kent Dunlap, President and Chief Executive Officer of Stars Behavioral Health Group (SBHG) and Kimberly Serbin, Senior Vice President, Employee Benefits Group, Ti-Trust. They gave an introduction to Employee Stock Ownership Programs (ESOP)—where a company’s employees own shares in that company—are gaining more attention as a way for organizations in search of growing, stabilizing, and getting peak performance from their workforce and/or generating capital to scale company size. They discussed how and why SBHG became one, and what this has meant as a business strategy for SBHG, as well as the impacts on its employees and their engagement with the company.

Executive attendees of this session gained an:

• Understanding what an ESOP is and its strategic business advantages for for-profit companies.
• Understanding the challenges of operating an ESOP.
• Understanding the positive impacts on employees.