Cooperative Speaker Series at Southern NH University

Did you know that 2012 is the International Year of Cooperatives?

Perhaps you are asking yourself what is a cooperative. Cooperatives are a form of shared ownership in which a group of members share the risks and benefits of jointly owning a business. One of the larger cooperatives in the US and worldwide is located here in Manchester, CCA Global which you would recognize as Carpet One. Manchester is also home to the first credit union which is a consumer co-op, St. Mary’s Bank.

The Center for Cooperatives & CED is sponsoring a 3 part speaker series with business leaders and cooperative developers to discuss the cooperative business model. This series is cosponsored by the Faculty Center for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching. Join us to learn more about cooperatives in New England and about the cooperative business model.

Use this link to register for one, two or all three programs: Register now!

Wednesday, February 15, 3:30-4:45, Academic Building, Room 106
The opening session will introduce the cooperative model and discuss how it can be used to preserve existing firms and develop new ones with a cooperative business model. There will be two speakers:
• Newell Lessell, executive director of the ICA Group, will discuss the merits of the co-op model in retiring owner succession planning and conversions as well as in startups of new firms.
• Jonathan Halle (SNHU ’93) is the managing member of the Cooperative and an Architect with Warrenstreet Architects in Concord NH, an employee owned cooperative.

Wednesday, March 14, 3:30-4:45, Academic Building, Room 106
This session will have two speakers from prominent New England cooperatives:
• Howard Brodsky, Co-Founder, Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer of CCA Global and an SNHU trustee will discuss how he and his co-founder decided that a shared services cooperative of small business owners would be a better model than the franchise model.
• Roberta MacDonald, Sr Vice President of Marketing for Cabot Creamery will speak about Cabot’s cooperative advantage in marketing and the Cabot experience of cooperative ownership.

Wednesday, April 11, 3:30 – 4:45, Academic Building, Room 106
The final session will examine the experience of consumer ownership of cooperatives with two speakers from two of the finest national examples of consumer ownership in the US:
• Ron Covey (SNHU ’82), President and CEO of St. Mary’s Bank
• Terry Appleby, General Manager, Hanover Consumer Cooperative Society