About Us

Board of Directors:

• Kate Emery, Chair
• David Fearon, Central Connecticut State University
• Donna Palomba, Jane Doe No More, Inc.
• Jim Carter, Carter Realty
• Judy Greiman, CT Conference of Independent Colleges
• Michelle Cote, The Purpose Project
• Ted Carroll, Leadership Greater Hartford
• Cary Wheaton, Billings Forge Works
• Donna Sodipo, CT Public Broadcasting

Board of Advisors:

• Robert Egger, DC Central Kitchen
• Clare Smith, Emeritus
• Bill Cronin, Cronin and Company

Staff:

• Kate Emery, Executive Director
• Mary Jo Keating, Planning and Marketing Manager
• Sarah Nevers, Assistant

The beginning…

Social Enterprise Trust is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization started by Kate Emery, to help transition her company into a Social Enterprise. There were many changes that needed to be made, some of the easy, but some very difficult – like dismantling the traditional sales commission structure and replacing it with a salaried approach. Some changes were straightforward and bold – like determining that all distributed profits would be split equally between the community, employees and the investors, and some were more subtle and difficult to pin down, like the commitment to transparency and participative governance. But over the course of several years Walker transformed itself, and emerged as a Social Enterprise as part of its DNA.

 

The final step was to protect this hard-earned state, and to do that Kate issued a new class of preferred stock, to be held by the Social Enterprise Trust. While providing no control over day to day operations, this preferred stock gives the Trust a majority voice in any issues related to the Social Enterprise status of the firm. This legal structure protects the legacy of her company’s Social Enterprise status and is designed to prevent any future majority shareholder from undoing this structure.

Today…

Our mission is to promote, preserve and protect Social Enterprise. While there will always be a place for the traditional approach to business, we believe that there will be an increasing demand for socially conscious businesses, and we want to help demonstrate that this model is not only much more deeply satisfying to work for, it is ultimately more sustainable and often even more profitable than the more traditional approach.

 

Through various educational programs we hope to steer young people toward Social Enterprise as well as to help existing business owners transition to the Social Enterprise model.

We are also eager to help any company whose philosophy and vision already embraces the Social Enterprise model to protect this legacy into the future.

 

Tomorrow…

Someday we hope to see Social Enterprise become a more mainstream, traditional business model. We hope to see more business schools offering degree programs in Social Enterprise rather than offering a single course in Business Ethics.

Partners, supporters, and advisors

Walker Systems Support, our Founding Partner, has provided space, equipment, staffing and financial support to help reSET fulfill its mission.  As a social enterprise itself, Walker embraces this business model, and is committed to enabling Connecticut to become a hub of Social Enterprise.

• Leadership Greater Hartford
• CT School of Business
• Hartford Business Journal
• Carter Realty
• CCSU
• Tango Alliance
• Newman's Own Foundation
• Farmington Savings Bank