TEA’s executive education agenda rests on a simple idea: the best decisions come from candid conversation among peers who understand the pressures of the seat. June’s CFO Summit and this August’s CEO Summit both put that idea to work, each for the leaders who benefit from it.
Inside the June CFO Summit
ESOP CFOs and senior financial leaders came together for insightful roundtable discussions centered on the challenges only their peers truly understand: the pressures, tradeoffs, and unique circumstances that shape financial leadership at ESOP companies. Attendance was strong, and participants consistently reported gaining valuable insights from both the educational sessions and the featured speakers.
The AI Executive Lab stood out as a highlight, an interactive session that gave attendees a hands-on look at tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini and how to put them to work on real business decisions. Roundtables gave CFOs a room to work through the financial mechanics behind the toughest calls at their companies: how to fund long-term obligations, structure a deal, manage risk, and report performance in a way employee owners can actually use.
National energy policy leader Dan Utech spoke on how energy abundance, AI-driven demand, and geopolitical risk are reshaping markets and capital decisions. Economist Kyla Scanlon also joined the Summit, offering a perspective on the economy that resonated with attendees.
From Financial Insight to Executive Action
The CFO Summit brought together financial leaders to examine the numbers behind the business, with discussions focused on capital strategy, repurchase obligations, risk, reporting, and the financial decisions that support long-term ESOP sustainability. August’s CEO Summit takes that conversation to the chief executive level, giving presidents and CEOs a forum of their own to compare perspectives, test assumptions, and talk candidly with peers who carry the same ultimate responsibility.
That is the value of the CEO Summit: a setting built not for broad conference traffic, but for senior leaders to step out of the day-to-day, hear from experts, and exchange candidly with peers about governance, growth, succession, culture, AI, and the future of their ESOP.
CEO Summit Runs August 23–25 at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes, California
Kyla Scanlon opens the CEO Summit with a keynote that brings her economic outlook to ESOP presidents and CEOs. She will offer leaders a clearer way to read the economy beneath the headlines, connecting sentiment, markets, capital decisions, and public perception to the strategic choices facing ESOP companies now. Scanlon coined the term “vibecession” to describe the growing disconnect between economic data and public sentiment, and her work has made her one of the most influential voices explaining how perception shapes behavior in markets, businesses, and boardrooms. She has been featured on The Daily Show, contributes to The New York Times Opinion, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Policy, and is a regular commentator on CNN and MS NOW. She will also join an upcoming episode of The Ownership Effect podcast.
TEA President and CEO Jim Bonham closes it with a midterm election briefing on what the political landscape means for ESOP policy. The days in between belong to roundtables built strictly for CEOs and presidents, covering executive compensation, board and trustee alignment, ESOP sustainability, mergers and acquisitions, litigation risk, valuation in the age of AI, and employee engagement and ownership culture.
The AI Executive Lab workshop walks CEOs through applying leading tools to real business decisions, and an open-microphone session hands the floor to ESOP presidents to raise whatever’s on their mind.
Spouses and guests have their own programming running in parallel throughout. Registration is open now.
