Media
Expert panel on Understanding private equity: Creating an economy we build up rather than buy out
WEBINAR - Nov. 18, 2024 / with Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project
In industries from dentistry to aircraft manufacturing, private equity (PE) is everywhere—some of it intent on rejuvenating flailing businesses, and some of it poised to extract maximum profit at any cost. To demystify this financial tool, CAMP and SCP hosted an expert panel of informed insiders and prominent American critics who have been on the frontlines of fighting PE’s worst excesses. Together, moderator Ana Pereira from the Toronto Star, Private Equity Stakeholder Project’s Jim Baker, Plunder author Brendan Ballou, SCP’s Jon Shell and CAMP Fellow Rachel Wasserman break down how PE is commonly used, what’s next and how we can change course.
Jon Shell on the advantages of Employee Ownership Trusts and shaping the future of employee ownership
OVERHEARD AT CROWE SOBERMAN PODCAST - Nov. 12, 2024
Crowe Soberman Audit and Advisory Partner Chandor Gauthier sits down with Jon Shell, Chair of Social Capital Partners and Board Member at Employee Ownership Canada. They dive into the benefits of Employee Ownership Trusts and get into the nitty gritty of how EOTs can support smooth business succession, boost equity and retention and safeguard business legacies.
Matthew Mendelsohn, discusses wealth inequality and inclusive growth with Nate Erskine-Smith
Social Capital Partners’ CEO, Matthew Mendelsohn, joins Member of Parliament for Beaches-East York, Nate Erksin-Smith, on his podcase “Uncommons”. Matthew and Nate talk about wealth concentration and its threat to democratic stability. They also discuss practical solutions to address wealth inequality, lack of trust in democratic institutions, the role of the federal public service and the need for a competent and responsive government.
Mark Carney and the Canadian business elite need to think more about growing wealth inequality that is destabilizing democracies around the world
“Given his professional history, (Mark) Carney knows that the benefits from economic growth in recent decades have increasingly gone to capital rather than workers,” writes Matthew Mendelsohn. “Even if he doesn’t want to serve up big pieces of blame pie, he should at least have critical reflections on the role of finance in producing obscene wealth alongside real hardship.”
TORONTO STAR - MAY 14, 2024 / Matthew Mendelsohn
Social Capital Partner’s Director of Policy, Dan Skilleter, on The Agenda with Steve Paikin
Social Capital Partner’s Director of Policy, Dan Skilleter, sits down with Steve Paikin on The Agenda to discuss his recent report “Billionaire Blindspot”. This segment digs into how Canada’s official statistics severely underestimate how rich the richest Canadians are and includes steps that can be taken to correct this misrepresentation.
Canada is bad at studying wealth inequality and we explain why that matters
“An analysis we undertook averaging multiple studies found Canada’s top 1 per cent owns 26 per cent of all wealth in Canada, and our top .01 per cent owns 12.4 per cent of all wealth. This is somewhat lower than the U.S. numbers, but it is much higher than official Statistics Canada numbers report,” writes Dan Skilleter.
TORONTO STAR - APRIL 4, 2024 / Dan Skilleter
“The feeling of a unifying mission was palpable,” reports Chair Jon Shell at buzzy ownership-lens investing event in Denver, CO
IMPACTALPHA - SEPT. 20, 2024
In The Week in Impact Investing, ImpactAlpha Editor David Bank writes that “the ownership economy has arrived.” Social Capital Partners’ Chair Jon Shell is quoted as saying the Denver event focused on ownership-lens investing was abuzz with enthusiasm, at which “the feeling of a unifying mission was palpable.” By all accounts, the event demonstrated momentum, gave real power to the ownership narrative and celebrated those intent on shared uplift.
SCP Chair Jon Shell in the Toronto Sun on what Employee Ownership Trusts mean for business owners, the community and the broader economy
TORONTO SUN - OCT. 9, 2024 / Linda White
Employee Ownership Trusts could have a significant impact on the Canadian economy, explains Jon to the Toronto Sun. A decade after a similar structure was introduced in the U.K. in 2014, more than 300 companies are sold to their employees annually. “Those companies keep their jobs in their local communities and continue to be owned domestically. The same will be true in Canada,” he says. “Every Canadian company sold to an EOT will remain Canadian, with jobs staying where they are...”
Dan Skilleter with expert analysis on StatsCan’s latest wealth survey, including its “missing billionaires”
THE CANADIAN PRESS - Oct. 29, 2024 / Ian Bickis
SCP’s director of policy, Dan Skilleter, with expert analysis of Statistics Canada’s latest Survey on Financial Security. The data outline how important asset ownership, in particular real estate, has become for the financial wellbeing and economic security of Canadian families - especially those with the lowest net worth. Plus, how the survey misses key data on the richest Canadians, which leaves a big blind spot in our understanding of both household finances and wealth inequality.
“It takes a Canadian to cut straight to the heart of American politics,” reports ImpactAlpha post U.S. election
IMPACTALPHA - Nov. 6, 2024 / David Bank, Dennis Price, Amy Cortese
“Only populist messages are working, and they’re quite similar on the left and the right,” says SCP Chair Jon Shell. “People are mad for the same reasons most of us in the impact community do our work: our system has produced outcomes that seem very unfair… Maybe it’s time to take the gloves off, and to start building our own economic populist narrative, without the nativism, isolationism, racism and sexism, that those who are justifiably angry can rally behind. The pieces are all there. Today, that’s what gives me hope.”