This year's employee share schemes for SMEs conference, jointly organised by the Employee Share Ownership (Esop) Centre and the Institute of Directors (IoD), will be held in London on Friday September 16.

About

This full day conference will help you decide whether to introduce an employee share scheme or deepen existing employee share ownership in your company.With increased choice of government approved models available, employee share ownership is the flexible and powerful business structure where employees buy or are gifted shares in their company. Creating employee owners in this way is achievable and can empower employees and drive growth. Employees' ownership of shares in the company for which they work can be the tangible core of a culture of ownership and engagement. Binding dynamic, growing companies, are employees with a stake and strong sense of that stake.

Who should attend?

This one-day conference is designed for owners, company directors, finance managers and HR managers who are considering implementing an employee share scheme in their business, or who want to develop existing employee share ownership.

Four reasons to attend

1. Reach an informed decision about a scheme that works for you - leave with a thorough understanding of the most suitable scheme to benefit your business and employees.
2. Gain cutting edge insights from the experts - learn about the legal, tax and accounting implications that could impact your business from those who have experience.
3. Receive practical guidance with an interactive programme - take part in interactive Q&As, panel discussions and a public surgery.
4. Change the culture of your company - create or deepen employee share ownership and create a tangible core of engagement that will benefit your workforce.

Prices

Centre / IoD members:	£385 + VAT
Non-members:	£485 + VAT

Bookings

To take advantage of the member rate, Centre members should contact the Centre for the booking form at events@esopcentre.comIoD and non-members can book online.

Programme

The event will be chaired by Malcolm Hurlston CBE, chairman of the Esop Centre.

Malcolm Hurlston CBEThe Esop Centre	Welcome and introduction
Stephen WoodhousePett Franklin	Introduction to Employee Share Schemes for SMEs
Mark GearingFieldfisher	Exit Planning for Founders and Management
Robert PostlethwaitePostlethwaite Solicitors	Enterprise Management Incentives
David CraddockDavid Craddock Consultancy Services	EMI Case Studies
Garry KarchRM2 Corporate FinanceRobert PostlethwaitePostlethwaite Solicitors	Beginner PanelThe road to employee share ownership: considerations for those starting out.
Colin KendonBird & Bird	Alternatives to EMIs
William FranklinPett Franklin	Share valuation
Garry KarchRM2 Corporate Finance	Employee Benefit Trusts and Succession Planning
Graham MuirNabarro	Employee Ownership Trusts
Colin KendonBird & BirdStephen WoodhousePett Franklin	Advanced PanelMaking existing employee share plans more effective and introducing complementary employee share plans.

Speakers

Malcolm Hurlston CBE, chairman, Esop Centre

Malcolm Hurlston is chairman of the Employee Share Ownership Centre and its international arm, the World Centre for Employee Share Ownership. He founded the Centre in 1988. He is visiting professor at the University of Westminster, with reference to employee ownership, a member of the HMRC Employment Related Securities Forum and represented on the Office of Tax Simplification committee. He chairs Hurlstons, the leading political media and research consultancy, the Financial Inclusion and Markets Centre, Registry Trust and Irish Judgments. He is president of the Foundation for Credit Counselling, which he founded in 1993. His work in financial services was recognised in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2013 when he was awarded a CBE.

Colin Kendon, partner, Bird & Bird

Colin Kendon is head of the employee incentives and benefits team at Bird & Bird LLP. Colin drafts, designs and implements employee share plans and other incentive arrangements and advises on the incentives aspects of corporate transactions for a wide range of clients from private companies to multi-nationals with an emphasis on the technology and communications sector. Colin advises extensively on EMI plans, shares for rights and establishing employee share markets. Colin co-authored “Internet Business: Commerce and Tax” which contains a substantial section on share plans and share based arrangements for employees and managers of private companies in technology and e-commerce sectors. He is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group and sits on several advisory committees of ifs Pro-Share.

David Craddock, founder and director, David Craddock Consultancy Services

David Craddock is a consultant specialising in employee share ownership and reward management, operating through his own business, David Craddock Consultancy Services, which he founded in 1997. He addresses all aspects of an employee share scheme project from design and implementation, tax and legal compliance to communication, administration and the ongoing maintenance of employee share schemes. He works with varied clientele ranging from major public limited companies with international share scheme considerations to smaller private concerns. David lectures regularly on employee share ownership matters and contributes to conferences and seminars worldwide, and is the author of Tolley’s Guide to Employee Share Schemes, The ICSA Employee Share Schemes Handbook and the employee share scheme sections of The Croner Reward A to Z Essentials of Pay and Benefits.

Ann Tyler, consultant, Lewis Silkin

Ann Tyler is an employee ownership consultant at Lewis Silkin with 30 years’ experience working closely with main board directors of small, medium and large companies to introduce employee ownership schemes. As a trustee for ten years of a large employee ownership trust, she has had first-hand experience of the governance of an employee owned company. She has extensive public speaking experience, having addressed audiences from the boardroom to the shop floor. Ann’s political policy work has included taking a private members bill through the UK parliament which became the Employee Share Schemes Act 2002; establishing the first APPG on Employee Ownership; projects for the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills; work with the Oxford Centre for Mutual and Employee Owned Business; and a review of employee ownership policy for the Labour Party, as part of The Hunt Review.

Graham Muir, partner, Nabarro

Graham Muir is a partner in Nabarro’s tax team with a 20-year track record of specialism in employee incentive schemes and employment tax issues. Graham advises quoted and unquoted companies on structuring, establishing and operating all forms of employee incentive schemes. He advises on employer and employee tax, company law, corporate governance and regulatory issues arising out of such schemes. In addition, Graham advises on the taxation of employees and directors, including PAYE, national insurance contributions and capital gains tax and on the issues that arise out of termination of employment or office and salary sacrifice arrangements. Graham is the author of a chapter in Tottel's Tax on Transactions entitled ‘Giving and Selling Shares to Employees’, and is a member of the tax committee of the Share Plan Lawyers group.

Mark Gearing, partner, Fieldfisher

Mark Gearing advises on the design, implementation and operation of executive and all employee share and option plans including all forms of tax-efficient plans approved by HMRC, for a full range of private and quoted companies. Mark’s experience and expertise includes advising inward investment companies, particularly those from the US, on structuring their UK and European incentives. His clients are often US emerging growth companies that require EMI sub plans and HMRC approved election agreements and multinational corporations that need a full suite of incentive plans. Mark is a member of the Share Plan Lawyers Group, the share schemes committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance, and sit on HMRC's employment related securities and valuations sub goup. I am the author of Tolley's CSR Company Service on Employee Share Plans and lecture on the University of Cambridge Masters in Bioscience Enterprise course.

Garry Karch, managing partner, RM2 Partnership

Garry Karch is a long-term employee ownership corporate finance professional. He is a co-founder of RM2 Corporate Finance, the corporate finance advisory affiliate of The RM2 Partnership. He brings over 25 years of employee ownership advisory and investment banking experience in the United States to RM2 Corporate Finance. During his time in the US, he served for many years on the ESOP Association’s Advisory Committee on Finance and was also a long-term member of the National Center for Employee Ownership. He has been a frequent speaker on structuring and financing employee ownership transactions throughout his career.

Robert Postlethwaite, managing director, Postlethwaite

Robert Postlethwaite is an employee share plan and employee ownership specialist with particular expertise in helping private and smaller listed companies find the right employee share plan to match their needs. He also specialises in arranging ownership succession through transfers of ownership to employee trusts and putting in place all-employee share ownership plans. Robert is a member of the Employment Lawyers Association, the Share Plan Lawyers Group and the Share Plan Committee of the Quoted Companies Alliance. A graduate in law from the University of Bristol, Robert was a partner in a national firm of corporate lawyers before founding Postlethwaite in 2003. He is described as a leader in his field in the 2016 edition of Chambers Guide to the Legal Profession.

Stephen Woodhouse, partner, Pett Franklin

Stephen Woodhouse joined Pett Franklin as the third partner in the team in December 2013. Throughout his career, he has advised on tax with particular emphasis on employee share schemes and related remuneration issues, including share valuation. He has advised on both domestic and international issues and is an acknowledged expert on employee benefit trusts, where he has advised on assisting many companies to reach settlements with HMRC in relation to the EBT Settlement Opportunity. Stephen has advised extensively on pension planning.

William Franklin, founder and partner, Pett Franklin

William is an experienced share schemes practitioner and chartered accountant who is widely recognised as a leading adviser on the valuation, accounting and financial aspects of all forms of remuneration, incentive and employee share schemes. He is a member of the HMRC Employment-Related Securities & Valuations sub-group, contributes to Tolley’s Guidance on Employment Taxes and to PLC. He has a wide background in tax advice and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. William has considerable experience of determining and agreeing with HMRC the market value for tax purposes of shares in unquoted companies. As a physics graduate, he is also able to advise on IFRS2 accounting and some of the more arcane aspects of option pricing mathematics. Together with David Pett, he first developed the joint share ownership plan (JSOP). [gallery columns="4" link="none" ids="1211,7431,7491,7471,7521,7481,7501,7511"]