Jessica Rose is the former chief financial officer and director of employee ownership programs at The Democracy Collaborative. She is a national employee ownership business strategist, who focuses on the unique role of capital to drive scale. She advises cities, grantmakers, and investors on cutting-edge models to expand economic opportunity through employee ownership and is deeply involved in the research and development of innovative, on-the-ground employee-owned business development and financing models.  

Jessica has a background as an entrepreneur and investment analyst, holds an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, is a Certified ESOP Fiduciary, and a Research Fellow with Rutgers University’s Institute for Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, for research into the role of capital in scaling employee ownership.  She was an editor of the Fifty by Fifty newsletter and blog and her work has appeared in Common Dreams, The Daily Yonder, and The Albany Times-Union.