Kent Piper, DAI's vice president of financial planning, led a panel discussion July 24 at the ESOP Association's Sustainability Seminar in Schaumburg, Ill. Piper and his group presented views on how best to calculate and manage repurchase obligations in employee stock ownership plans, or ESOPs.

DAI has been employee-owned since its founding in 1970, Piper noted. In its early days, DAI ownership was concentrated in relatively few hands, but now DAI is wholly owned by its ESOP, a broad-based retirement plan that represents hundreds of employees. Although the ESOP model poses various challenges, employee ownership offers significant benefits to the firm and its clients. "We remain completely independent, driven not by investors, parent companies, or external stockholders but by our own commitment to the mission," Piper said.

"We have every incentive to pursue efficiency and invest in the company and its people, which means we can attract and retain superb development professionals. Those professionals have a personal stake in the success of the firm and by extension the success of our clients. And we field a workforce that is accountable and engaged, held to account not only by the client but also by their fellow owners."

DAI was selected for the panel as a result of its proactive planning and analysis of its repurchase obligation, Piper said, as well as the company's effective communication with its board of directors in managing the obligation.

Piper was joined on the panel by Michael Cheek, senior vice president for administration at Herff Jones, Inc., an Indianapolis-based manufacturer, and Tim Jonas, chief financial officer at McKay Nursery Company of Waterloo, Wisconsin. The seminar was led by executives from the Crowe Horwath accounting firm and Prairie Capital Advisors, and attracted leadership of ESOP-owned companies from around the country.

The Washington, D.C.-based ESOP Association, founded in 1978, is a national nonprofit organization with 18 local chapters serving approximately 2,500 ESOP companies, professionals committed to ESOPs, and companies considering the implementation of an ESOP. Its objectives are to promote and enhance laws before Congress and regulatory agencies that govern ESOPs, and provide members with expert educational ESOP programming and information.