TEA Convenes ESOP Leaders From Across America for CEO Summit

In 2022, TEA held its inaugural CEO Summit to help ESOP leaders grappling with major macroeconomic challenges like inflation and supply chain disruptions. TEA received such a positive response from attendees that it is now an annual event. The 2023 CEO Summit, held in Sonoma, CA in late August, was another great success, with attendance nearly doubling from last year.

CEO Summit participants once again discussed the most serious challenges and opportunities being faced by ESOPs from national, regional, and industry-specific perspectives. Keynote sessions on the economy, led by UBS, and on the regulatory landscape, led by TEA President and CEO, Jim Bonham, were well-received for their detail and insight. CEOs were also able to join roundtables of their peers to network and identify problems and solutions, building lasting relationships that extend beyond the Summit.

Attendees were also treated to a special screening of the documentary Maiden, followed by a highly inspirational keynote by the film’s subject, pioneering sailor Tracy Edwards, MBE. CEOs were in awe of Tracy’s exploits, which included remortgaging her home to finance the first allfemale
entry in the Whitbread around-the-world sailing race and leading them to a record-breaking finish. They were moved by her story of overcoming adversity and succeeding in the most challenging environments.

This year, with buzz around generative artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, growing by the day, one of the most anticipated Summit sessions was “The AI Moment: Emerging Ahead,” led by Third Reef Partners’ Alex Westholm. As a tech strategist who has worked with many top-tier organizations, Alex’s focus was on helping our CEOs better understand these technologies at a capability level to assess the implications for their companies. The session covered the history that has brought us to the AI moment, the broad capabilities of generative AI, and where AI is likely to go in the future. As with any new technology, there are risks, and Westholm warned our CEOs about issues such as data privacy ("don't send sensitive data to ChatGPT!"), security, and factual accuracy.

After his presentation, Alex’s subsequent breakout session explored where generative AI might apply to individual CEOs’ businesses. During the breakout, CEOs applied their newfound understanding of AI capabilities to their companies' value chains, evaluating each link in the chain to identify opportunities or threats from the technology. Continuing the general session's exploration of the human impact of AI, one particularly noteworthy discussion concluded that employee owners are more likely to see AI as an opportunity to help their companies grow, rather than a threat.

TEA would like to thank all the ESOP CEOs, their guests, our expert speakers, and our generous sponsors for making the 2023 CEO Summit such a resounding success. Stay tuned for an announcement of the dates and location for the 2024 CEO Summit, which will be held in the New England area next August.