Jonathan Ward is the Director of Lending for the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning. The Fund supports the growth and development of employee-owned businesses, creating and sustaining jobs worth owning. Jonathan primarily manages the Fund’s lending and outreach work. He connects with borrowers, helping transform ideas into strong lending opportunities that develop cooperatives. Jonathan coordinates the day-to-day loan-processing work and the review process with the Fund’s Board of Directors.
Jonathan views employee ownership as a powerful tool that grows strong companies providing good jobs in the community. Before he even knew about cooperatives, Jonathan knew that participatory management and profit-sharing deepened worker engagement in organizations. Now he works to show how these same strong business practices can be encoded in the DNA of a company through the cooperative model.
From 2014 through 2019, Jonathan led the employee ownership conversions program at the ICA Group, assisting dozens of companies with their ownership transitions. His work on conversions includes exit planning and business valuation, governance design and worker training. Jonathan specializes in structuring and coordinating the financing for employee ownership transitions, working alongside the cooperative lenders in the field. Jonathan also works to develop common processes and benchmarks for conversions in order to reduce costs, simplify transitions, and scale the cooperative sector.
A trainer at heart, Jonathan enjoys working with people to build shared understanding around new concepts, and is skilled at building learning programs and infrastructures for companies to enhance capacity. Prior to ICA, he worked in digital marketing where he helped his company reinvent and streamline their training and onboarding practices. Jonathan has also supported business development projects and financing strategies for social enterprises, particularly in local agriculture and food systems.
Jonathan earned an MBA and a Master of Public Policy and Administration from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and a BS in Information Design and Corporate Communication from Bentley University.
As Director of Lending, I manage the lending and outreach work for the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning, which helps design financing solutions for employee-owned businesses, and provides capital for conversions to worker ownership.
Cooperative Care is a passionate, selfless group of people (mostly women) who are working so hard to take care of the vulnerable people in their community. This small company of 40 caregivers has taught me what being a cooperative is all about: creating a business that brings joy to the people who work there, because it becomes an extension of themselves.
“Why not eat insects?” by Marcel Dicke. A very practical (albeit hard to swallow) talk. I’m an inner environmentalist and outward vegetarian, but might be okay with eating insects to save the world!
Working from home and having flexibility as a working parent really makes me feel balanced. I also love to garden and work outside around my house. I’m usually covered with dirt at the end of each Saturday in the summer.
I work from home in East Falmouth, Massachusetts (Cape Cod).
I really like Good to Great by Jim Collins. In particular, the ‘Hedgehog Concept’, which basically says that the most successful and enduring businesses are built at the intersection of what you are passionate about doing, what you can make money on, and what you can be the best in the world at. It’s a strong foundation for businesses, including cooperatives!
Have questions about employee ownership or cooperative development? Whether you're exploring a business transition, starting a new cooperative, or seeking tailored solutions to strengthen your industry, our team is here to help. Let us guide you toward a more equitable and resilient future for your business and community.
