Lecture Description
How can coffee businesses preserve their mission and impact through leadership transitions? This 75-minute, insight-rich panel explores how worker ownership can secure a company’s legacy, deepen impact, and empower the employees who drive its success. Attendees will hear directly from three women leaders who are shaping the future of worker owned coffee businesses in a candid conversation moderated by a revered icon in the field of worker ownership. Their experiences - from guiding a legacy company through ownership transition, to rising through the ranks to lead a cooperative, to sustaining long-term effective governance - offer invaluable lessons in leadership, resilience, and creative, mission-driven decision-making. Participants will leave with practical strategies, actionable insights, and inspiration for considering worker ownership as an option for the next big leadership transition in a way that can build lasting, values-driven legacy.
Date: Friday, April 10, 2026
Time: 10:00 am - 10:15 am
Location: Room 23BC
Category: Sustainability
Access: This lecture is free to attend with a World of Coffee entry badge. Register to attend World of Coffee here.
Please note that lecture sessions are open on a first-come, first-served basis. Early arrival is highly recommended to secure your seat.
Moderator
John Abrams
Consultant, Abrams+Angell
John Abrams is an author, entrepreneur, and community activist. In 1973 he founded South Mountain Company (SMCo) and in 1987 converted it to a worker co-op when there were only a dozen in the U.S. Today this 40-person integrated architecture, construction, and solar firm is among the world’s highest-scoring B-Corps. In 2022 he passed South Mountain on to second generation leadership and co-founded Abrams+Angell, where he guides companies through employee ownership conversions. John’s latest book, published in 2025, is From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership.
Panelists
Beth Spong
CEO, Dean's Beans Organic Coffee
Dean’s Beans is a 33-year-old Fair Trade organic coffee roaster, using specialty coffee as a vehicle for positive change. While paying Fair Trade prices, they also fund social, economic and environmental projects led by farmers. Spong is proud of their commitment to putting people and planet before profit. They recently earned a B Impact Score of 168.5, making Dean’s Beans the highest scoring B Corp-certified coffee company in the world.
Claire Christensen
Executive Director, Gimme! Coffee
Claire Christensen is the Executive Director of Gimme! Coffee, a worker-owned coffee roaster with five cafes in Ithaca, New York. With a transition team, Claire shepherded Gimme from a sole proprietorship to a worker-owned cooperative: developing leadership within the company, encouraging cultural evolution, and engaging with cooperative developers and funders. Prior to her work at Gimme, Claire spent several years engaging with food systems as a zooarchaeologist.
Hope Kolly
Customer Service Manager, Equal Exchange
With decades of experience at the iconic worker-owned cooperative, and her service as a board member, Hope provides a seasoned perspective on cooperative governance, employee engagement, and the long-term structures needed to maintain mission-driven growth.