Economic Engagement: How Employee Ownership Builds Businesses That Flourish
Featuring Bill Fotsch
In this episode, Bard MBA alum Jacob Rosenzweig-Stein interviews business consultant and researcher Bill Fotsch about economic engagement—a management approach that treats employees as true business partners by sharing financial information, decision-making, and accountability. Drawing on 30 years of research, Bill explains his five-pillar framework and why economically engaged companies often outperform traditional management models, achieving stronger profit growth, employee retention, and long-term resilience. The conversation explores employee ownership, ESOP conversions, succession planning, and how businesses can strengthen local economies while creating greater value for workers and communities.
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Bill Fotsch
Bill Fotsch, known as the “Economic Engagement Guru,” has helped more than 400 companies improve business results, employee engagement, and customer retention over the past 30 years. His research, conducted in collaboration with Harvard Business School, highlights the impact of economic engagement on driving results, including his work, A Key Strategy to Double Profitable Growth. He now complements his consulting and research by acquiring companies and applying these same principles to expand employee ownership.
Bill has worked with organizations such as Capital One, BHP Billiton, Zambian Consolidated Copper Mine, Roadway Express, Carlson Travel, and Southwest Airlines, while also coaching hundreds of small- to medium-sized private businesses. Over three decades, he has refined a process that improves financial performance and employee outcomes by partnering with employees to serve customers profitably.
He is the author or co-author of articles published by Harvard Business Review, including More Than a Paycheck, as well as more than 90 Forbes articles and over 30 Inc. articles. His book, Partners on the Payroll, features successful case studies. In recent years, he has expanded into investing in private companies, applying the same principles he has championed throughout his career.
Bill holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Marquette University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he graduated as a Baker Scholar.
Jacob Rosenzweig-Stein
Jacob is an Analyst in Council Fire’s Future Leaders Program and a graduate of Bard College’s MBA in Sustainability ’26. An innovative thinker, he is passionate about advancing equitable, sustainable solutions through collaboration and meaningful connection. His work focuses on building resilient communities grounded in the triple bottom line—people, planet, and profit—approaching progress one connection, step, or bike pedal at a time.
J. Renay Loper
Renay is a Clinical Faculty in Organizational Leadership for the Bard MBA in Sustainability, where she focuses on justice-centered transformation in the workplace. Previously, she was the Vice President of Program Innovation at PYXERA Global where she served on the Executive Leadership Team, led five country offices, drove the development of new business and programs, co-led the organization's work on inclusive circular cities, and advised corporate clients on their social impact strategies. Renay also led the organization’s ARC (Antiracist Collective) initiatives, which included internal and external efforts toward dismantling unjust systems. To this end, Renay created Rhetoric to Action, a series of conversations to bridge sectors toward collective action around social and racial justice.
Prior to PYXERA Global, Renay led the grassroots exchange and education grant portfolio at the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, and has served in a variety of leadership roles in higher education, nonprofit, and business prior to that. Renay is an avid speaker and facilitator, has authored and edited numerous publications, including a resource journal, Student Affairs Professionals Cultivating Campus Climates Inclusive of International Students (Jossey Bass). Renay serves on the board of directors of nonprofits including Community Change, Harpswell Foundation, and Girl Rising.
