Archived Meeting

Down to the Roots

Employee Ownership & The Creative Class

Main Speaker

Paul Millman Vice President, Chroma Technology Corp Board of Directors, Vermont Employee Ownership Center Founded in 1991, Chroma Technology Corp. is a 100% employee-owned company that has grown from seven employees to 62. Chroma is the primary producer of optical filters and thin film coatings for three of the four major microscope manufacturers in the world. This maverick employee-owned company has recently moved to their new state-of-the art plant in Rockingham. Chroma was recently recognized by Vermont Business Magazine as the fastest-growing technology company over the last five years in Vermont. Much of their success is attributed to employee ownership. Vice President, Paul Millman, will go over the advantages and disadvantages of employee ownership as he has encountered them working with the company and as a founding board member of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center.

National reports have concluded that thriving cultural communities are the breeding grounds for creative and innovative businesses. The Vermont Council on Culture and Innovation (VCCI) is in the process of investigating the ties between the state's cultural and economic activities in order to develop a strategic plan for growing Vermont's healthy creative economy.

The creative economy is made up of more than the artisans and craftsmen (and women)
embedded in many of Vermont's communities but also the writers, educators, architects,
graphic artists, engineers, software designers, developers of new technology and entrepreneurs. Executive Director of the Vermont Council on Rural Development, and VCCI council member, Paul Costello, will speak more about this topic to many members of Vermont's creative class at the next VVN meeting.