Miklos Systems, Inc. (MSI) is pleased to help launch the national accreditation program for Employee-Owned companies called Certified Employee-Owned (Certified EO). MSI is a government contractor specializing in secure web-enabled database applications and cloud implementation headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia,
“This is a big step for MSI and for all of the employee-owned companies in our community” said Roland Burdett, CEO of Miklos Systems, Inc. “We proudly support employee-ownership and Certified EO will raise local and national awareness of truly employee-owned companies. It’s important to us that job seekers, customers, businesses, and government entities now have a uniform, consistent, method for identifying truly employee-owned companies.”
Certified EO provides assurance that a company claiming to be employee-owned provides a truly broad-based employee-ownership plan with access by a large base of their employees. Burdett continued “We hope to use the Certified EO mark to distinguish us from others in our community, and we encourage all Employee-Owned companies to pursue this certification.”
Certified EO officially launches today, September 5, 2017, with 29 “founding member” employee-owned companies. MSI is proud to be the first software and systems engineering firm with this designation. Certified EO’s founding members operate in all 50 states and DC, and employ 47,000 Americans. “This is truly an impressive group of companies,” said Thomas Dudley, CEO of Certified Employee-Owned, “they’re outstanding in their industries and they’re united by a deep commitment to their employees and their communities.”
Miklos Systems, Inc. originally became employee-owned in 2006 when their founder, Elizabeth “Betsie” Miklos, wanted to begin to retire but wanted to ensure that the company and the culture she had founded thirteen years earlier would continue. She saw employee ownership as good for the employees, the customers, and the company’s bottom line. In 2015 Ms. Miklos sold the remaining shares of her stock back to the company so that MSI could become 100% Employee-Owned.
Employee-owned companies are a secret driver in the American economy. Today there are over 6,000 employee-owned companies with a combined revenue of over $200 billion and employment of nearly 2 million employee-owners. Employee-owned companies strengthen communities, foster a financially savvy workforce, build wealth for their employees, and increase the resiliency of the economy during recessions. Despite these major benefits, many Americans don’t know that employee-owned companies are so common and so successful.
Certified Employee-Owned is looking to raise the profile of employee-ownership by combining the reach of employee-owned companies with a common set of standards. “By connecting Americans with the great employee-owned companies in their communities, we will make employee ownership something every American cares about,” explained Dudley. “EO will become something people take in to consideration when they are thinking about where to work and where to shop. And it begins today.”
To learn more about Certified EO, visit https://www.certifiedeo.com.
