I would like to wish my blog readers a happy and successful New Year. 2011 promises to be a busy and eventful year for me and for the Foundation for Enterprise Development. Some of the things I am particularly excited about include the upcoming ceremony in February to formally install Joseph Blasi as the first J. Robert Beyster Professor of Employee Ownership at the Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations. I am pleased with the work that Joseph and his talented academic colleagues at Rutgers have done in support of employee ownership for the past 20 years. The ceremony will take place at Rutgers and I hope to attend if possible.

I am currently reviewing student essays on the topic of employee ownership as a part of the Creating Wealth By Sharing Wealth national essay contest. We received essays from more than 20 universities across the United States. Hundreds were submitted and we received the highest evaluated and honorary mentions. This means that I will be busy reading and scoring essays for at least the next couple of weeks. A number of cash awards will be given out to the winners, along with sponsored attendance at the 2011 NCEO/Beyster Institute Annual Employee Ownership Conference for two winners in April. We are also collecting resumes of these undergraduates and graduate students so these can be made available along with the essays, after the judging is complete.

At some point this year I also look forward to getting back to Michigan. I enjoyed my last trip there and I am anxious to make a return visit.

– Bob