Owners Session: Planning a Thoughtful Transition to Employee Ownership

In this Owners Session, LiveOak Living Community founder David Seaton and CEO Rachel Medina talk through what it really takes to plan and carry out a successful ownership transition — and why they ultimately chose an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) as part of their long-term plan.

Key takeaways:

• Effective succession planning is a process, not an event. LiveOak didn’t treat succession as a single transaction to optimize. Instead, they approached it over time, taking time to explore options, align leadership, and think through long-term implications before moving forward.

• Founder–successor alignment is critical to a successful transition. Active involvement from both the founder and successor helped ensure clarity, trust, and continuity. Alignment between leaders proved just as important as the ownership structure itself.

• Employee ownership can shape the future of the business, not just the exit. For LiveOak, an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) was more than an exit strategy. It offered a way to preserve independence, align ownership with the people responsible for running the business day to day, and build confidence and trust with customers through a founder transition.

• Intentional communication supports stability during an ownership transition. Clear, paced communication with employees helped maintain focus and trust throughout the process. Sharing information thoughtfully supported engagement while keeping operations on track.

• Experience from peers can help turn theory into clarity. As part of their exploration, LiveOak’s leadership connected with other owners navigating similar questions through Stewards Circle, a peer community hosted by Common Trust. Hearing directly from fellow founders and successor leaders helped make employee ownership feel concrete and achievable.

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