ESOP Communication Services

As Vice President of ESOP Communication Services, Lindsay Shafer’s engaging and collaborative style creates an ideal environment for effective learning and meaningful communication. Her clients benefit from her expertise in ESOP communication, leadership development, and organizational culture, as well as her practical experience helping organizations strengthen engagement and ownership at every level.

For more than 20 years, Lindsay has served a wide range of organizations, including employee-owned companies, nonprofits, government agencies, and educational institutions. She provides facilitation, training, and project management in areas such as employee ownership education, inclusion and belonging, and strategic planning.

Lindsay plays an active role in the employee ownership community, speaking frequently on employee ownership and workplace culture. She serves on The ESOP Association’s Ownership Culture Committee and is the Vice President of Fundraising and Sponsorships for the ESOP Association’s Rocky Mountain Chapter.

Lindsay holds both a BA and MA from the University of Pennsylvania. An avid trail runner and hiker, she can often be found exploring Colorado’s trails with her two dogs, Tukker and Moo. When not outdoors, Lindsay enjoys spending time in the kitchen cooking and baking.

Cathy Ivancic’s warm, interactive style is ideal for effective adult learning. Her clients gain the benefit of her technical expertise in ESOPs, committee development and practical ownership culture experience.

For more than 33 years, Cathy has served ESOPs in a wide variety of industries including: manufacturing, medical services, construction, distribution, retail, and professional services.

Cathy is often a featured speaker nationally and internationally on employee ownership, open-book management training and business literacy. She served on the board of the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) for 10 years and is a founding member of the Ownership Culture Committee of the ESOP Association. She has served on the corporate board of a 100% ESOP company since 2016.

Whether he is training or creating digital resources, Danny’s thoughtful approach builds meaningful understanding and appreciation for employee ownership. As an ESOP Communication Consultant at Blue Ridge Associates, Danny provides on-site ESOP training, video development, written tools, and web-based interactive activities for ESOP companies nationwide. He has edited hundreds of videos and has helped thousands of employee owners understand the benefits of employee ownership.

Danny is a leader in developing our fully customized Certified Employee Owner (CEO) video training programs. He also leads the development of our off-the-shelf ESOP communication resources.

Danny lived internationally for 5 years and is fluently bilingual in English and Spanish. He holds an MBA plus an MA and delivers our ESOP resources in both languages. His experience as a teacher early in his career gave him rich experience delivering complex ideas in plain language.

Combining ESOP experience with her sunny disposition, Cecilia Garcia offers training, tools, and ownership culture services to ESOPs nationwide. As an ESOP Communication Consultant at Blue Ridge Associates, she provides all our services including ESOP statement presentations, ESOP rollouts, custom brochures and interactive employee ownership learning activities.

Cecilia has helped thousands of ESOP participants, company leaders, HR professionals and committee members understand how their ESOP works. She joined our communication team after several years answering participant questions for some of the most complex ESOPs in the country. In that role, Cecilia developed a knack for diffusing skepticism and fear about the ESOP while patiently explaining statements, plan rules, diversification, and the timing for distribution.

Cecilia is a leader for our team on blending our services with the communication capabilities of ESOPConnection – the online portal for Blue Ridge ESOP Associates.

Cecilia has a pulse on explaining ESOPs from the individual participants’ point of view. She is a native Spanish speaker who brings ESOPs to life with engaging examples, interactive games, and visual tools for employees in both English and Spanish.

Known for his ability to transform “boring” ESOP, finance and business concepts into fun, engaging educational events, Jim Bado has been enhancing the impact of employee ownership since 1989, developing and delivering customized employee-ownership communication, training and ownership-culture services to hundreds of ESOPs.

Jim also engages with the employee-ownership community by participating at conferences, writing articles, and volunteering at local, state and national levels. As a long-time advocate for the power of employee ownership, he has served on the ESOP Association’s Board of Governors, chaired the Las Vegas Conference and been an Officer for the Ohio ESOP Association Chapter.

In addition to Jim’s successful work with employee-owned companies, he has provided financial intelligence training to Fortune 1000 companies across the world for more than two decades.