Recently, I connected with Optimax CEO Rick Plympton to discuss his design of an innovative employee ownership trust transition plan for his company. Optimax ownership created a new nonprofit perpetual trust that owns the company. The trust’s purposes include ensuring the business will not be sold to another entity, will continue monthly profit sharing with employees, and will position the company for ongoing growth. This approach will provide for the eventual retirement of the owners while also buttressing the resiliency of the company and ensuring it continues to contribute to the region’s economic and social needs.
Rick is a leading business voice in Rochester, New York. Based on his efforts, he was selected as an Aspen Institute Job Quality Fellow. He has been a wonderful thought partner on strategies to build better jobs for America’s workers. This conversation is part of our Job Quality in Practice series, and we’re grateful to Prudential Financial for their support of
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Rick Plympton, Chairman of the Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board has announced a change in the leadership of the board and the agency. Karen Springmeier, the long time and first Executive Director will be retiring effective Feb 1st and Lynn Freid will be the new Executive Director.
“Karen has been involved in the workforce development field for over 41 years. She has been instrumental in establishing regional collaboration and partnerships and received the NYATEP Statewide Leadership Award in 2019. Karen will be greatly missed by her colleagues locally and statewide,” Plympton noted.
A Job Quality Agenda for the Next Administration
The Importance of Job Quality
We need a new vision for work, one that is rooted in the ideals of freedom, fairness, and universal human dignity as much as in the persistent pursuit of economic efficiency. For most Americans, work is both a means to support oneself and one’s family and an important source of human connection and social identity. Success at work can expand access to resources that in turn expand choices and freedoms. How communities and businesses should operate to improve job quality and expand opportunity for all has been a central concern of our work as Job Quality Fellows. We can progress toward a more inclusive and equitable future through businesses, workers, investors, government, and others working together to create the good jobs that enable workers to thrive, companies to be productive and profitable, and communities to benefit from healthy, sustainable economies.