Stacey Smith: Why Employee Ownership Is the Best Kept Secret in Business
Stacey Smith has dedicated her career to helping businesses align their operations with their values, with a focus on social and environmental impact. She began her professional journey as a CPA at Arthur Andersen, where she gained deep financial expertise before pivoting into strategy and organizational development. Driven by a desire to apply her skills toward meaningful change, she became an early advocate for corporate sustainability and responsibility in the U.S.
In 2001, Stacey joined Business for Social Responsibility, where she spent a decade advising Fortune 500 companies on reducing harm and embedding sustainable practices into their operations. More recently, she has worked alongside nonprofits and foundations to strengthen their strategic direction, governance, and organizational management—engaging in efforts to address systemic barriers to wealth and break cycles of poverty through her work with the Public Equity Group and her own consulting practice.
Today, at Project Equity, Stacey is helping lead the charge in expanding employee ownership nationwide—growing a team of professionals committed to building economic resilience, quality jobs, and community wealth through broad-based business ownership.
Stacey holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Vermont and pursued international business studies at the University of Copenhagen. Outside of work, she enjoys hiking the trails of the Bay Area, exploring new restaurants, and spending time with her family.
To learn more about Stacey and her inspiring work, visit project-equity.org, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
To explore employee ownership as a potential path for your business, or to schedule a conversation with the Project Equity team, click here.
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Stacey shared Project Equity itself as her cause of choice—a national nonprofit working to scale employee ownership and unlock its power to create economic resilience for workers, communities, and business owners. As a 501(c)(3), Project Equity relies on the support of donors and grantmakers to continue this transformative work.