SO:25 Conference Program
Many exciting keynote and workshop speakers have already confirmed their participation — catch a first glimpse below!
More details are coming soon.
- Keynotes and Panels
- Workshop
- Other
Arrive, Explore and Get into Contact
Start the day by arriving at your own pace – grab a coffee, reconnect with familiar faces, and meet new ones as the space fills with energy. Whether outside in the courtyard or inside the Radialsystem, we are here to welcome you with a smile (and a croissant). Take time to explore the venue, visit the exhibition around steward-ownership, and let the spirit of the conference begin to unfold.
The Role of Corporate Ownership & Finance for Stewarding Value-Driven Businesses
In the first block on the main stage, we kick off the conference by exploring how ownership and financing shape company behaviour and their role in building value-driven and independent businesses. We dive into steward-ownership and take a look at the motivations, decisions, and journeys of two companies that have embraced steward-ownership. Learn how steward-ownership comes to life in practice – from initial spark to everyday stewardship to innovative ways of financing. This session makes one thing clear: (corporate) ownership matters – for entrepreneurs, companies and all their stakeholders.
Moderation
Welcome to the SO:25
We begin the day with a musical introduction, and an opening sequence inviting us to come together and gather energy for the day. Together, we connect with the conference theme “Because Ownership Matters”, laying the groundwork for diving deep into steward-ownership.
The Role of Ownership in Purposeful Businesses
Oxford professor and thought leader Prof. Colin Mayer draws the bigger picture on the future of the corporation and corporate ownership. He outlines the underlying principles and inherent structures that matter if we want to build businesses that produce profitable solutions for the problems of people and planet. His talk invites us to rethink ownership not as a right to extract value, but as a responsibility to create enduring value.
Ownership as a Mirror of Our Relationship to the World
With a dedicated legal form for steward-owned companies (GmbH mit gebundenem Vermögen / GmgV) on the horizon in Germany, this session dives into the current status of the legal and political process and discusses important elements of the legal form. Join legal experts, policy advocates and Member of the German Bundestag Carl-Philipp Sassenrath to learn: Where does the initiative stand today? What are the key design questions shaping the proposed law? And what lies ahead for companies, advisors, and policymakers in Germany and beyond?
Owning with Integrity: Haferkater’s Journey to Steward-Ownership
Porridge with Purpose! As one of the three founders of the fast-growing food startup Haferkater, Leandro Burguete shares the personal and strategic journey behind transitioning their company into steward-ownership – and why, for Haferkater, it was never a compromise, but a commitment. From navigating legacy investors to aligning values with legal structure, he offers an honest look at what it means to take ownership seriously – beyond financial gain – and to find financing that helps them grow in a healthy way.
Values-Aligned Capital: A New Paradigm for Investment
In this keynote, we shift our focus from ownership to financing. Camille Canon shares her perspective on designing financial and governance structures that support moral and ethical decision-making in corporations. Drawing on her extensive experience as co-founder of Purpose US and current Entrepreneur in Residence with Jonathan Soros, Camille explores how investors can better leverage their private power to benefit the public good. You’ll learn why we need a fundamentally different quality of financing—both within and beyond the steward-ownership movement—to create lasting positive impact.
Steward-Ownership Aligned Financing: How do you fund steward-owned companies?
In his keynote, Achim Hensen unpacks how steward-ownership serves as a compass for developing new qualities of financing that truly match the company’s needs. He shares insights, challenges, successes and surprises from Purpose Ventures and Purpose Evergreen Capital, drawing on 10 years of experience investing in steward-owned companies and building radically different funds. You’ll learn what steward-ownership aligned financing means in practice, discover key principles and the questions we still need to explore.
Speaker
Break
Let’s get Work(shop)ing #1
Now it’s time to get to work. In a set of workshops, experts will take you one level deeper into steward-ownership and related topics.
You want to learn more about the principles behind steward-ownership and explore grey tones? You are curious about how companies transition into steward-ownership and want to learn from founders about common challenges? You’re building or running a business and want to know how to set up governance and succession structures in steward-ownership? You’re an investor – or looking for one – and want to dive into the nuts and bolts of steward-ownership aligned financing and fund-building? Or you want to zoom out and explore where steward-ownership fits in today’s global and political landscape?
In these workshops, you choose the lens. You’ll get in-depth insights, stories from the field, and space to ask questions, share your own perspective, and connect with others walking similar paths.
“Good Governance” in Steward-owned companies: Structures, Best Practices and the Spirit of Stewardship
Answering what good governance looks like in steward-owned companies requires a multi-dimensional perspective. In this workshop, we explore what it takes – structurally, culturally and personally – to govern with stewardship at heart. Through real-world examples, we’ll discuss governance models, roles and decision-making processes, and what “good governance” truly means in steward-owned companies.
(German translation will be provided)
Speakers
Founders’ Journeys: Learnings from Stapelstein, Haferkater, and RECUP
Join the founders of Stapelstein, Haferkater, and RECUP, as they spill the tea on what can happen when you start on a traditional investment path and dream of steward-ownership. In this practical workshop, they share key insights, hurdles and learnings on the path to building up successful businesses in the context of steward-ownership.
Steward-Ownership Around the World: Local Roots, Global Resonance
Steward-ownership is taking root around the world but how it’s practiced varies by cultural, legal, and economic context. In this session, we’ll take a literal flight around the globe – from the US and Chile, across the UK, and all the way to New Zealand – to hear directly from practitioners about how they’re adapting the model to fit local realities. We’ll explore how different cultural, traditional and indigenous approaches to ownership can challenge and enrich the global movement.
Self-management & Steward-ownership: A match made in heaven?
What happens when self-management meets steward-ownership? Both concepts challenge traditional corporate structures, and open up new possibilities for creating more human-centered, purpose-driven, and resilient organizations. This session explores how leadership and governance evolve when ownership can’t be sold – and responsibility is shared. For anyone practicing New Work, exploring self-organization, or rethinking the future of work and ownership.
Steward-ownership Aligned Financing: Basics, Questions and Discussion
This workshop unpacks the essentials of steward-ownership aligned financing: what it is, how it works, and what it means for investors, companies and the relationship between them. From the principles and instruments behind structuring investments that align with long-term independence, to real-life examples, you’ll learn what it takes to invest in a steward-owned business and to fundraise for one.
Speakers
Lunch Time!
Take a deep breath, get moving, and enjoy a delicious lunch in good company. Whether you’re continuing a conversation from the morning or just starting a new one, this is your moment to connect, reflect, and recharge. Wander through the halls, visit the exhibition, or simply soak up the atmosphere.
Let’s get Work(shop)ing #2
Now it’s time to get to work. In a set of workshops, experts will take you one level deeper into steward-ownership and related topics.
You want to learn more about the principles behind steward-ownership and explore grey tones? You are curious about how companies transition into steward-ownership and want to learn from founders about common challenges? You’re building or running a business and want to know how to set up governance and succession structures in steward-ownership? You’re an investor – or looking for one – and want to dive into the nuts and bolts of steward-ownership aligned financing and fund-building? Or you want to zoom out and explore where steward-ownership fits in today’s global and political landscape?
In these workshops, you choose the lens. You’ll get in-depth insights, stories from the field, and space to ask questions, share your own perspective, and connect with others walking similar paths.
The Legal Future of Steward-Ownership: Germany as a Case in Progress
With a dedicated legal form for steward-owned companies (GmbH mit gebundenem Vermögen / GmgV) on the horizon in Germany, this session dives into the current status of the legal and political process. Join legal experts and policy advocates to learn: Where does the initiative stand today? What are the key design questions shaping the proposed law? And what lies ahead for companies, advisors, and policymakers in Germany and beyond?
Learnings from Investing in and with Steward-Ownership
An increasing number of investors and investment funds are exploring how capital can be invested and structured in alignment with the principles of steward-ownership. Looking through the lens of investors and capital providers, we share learnings, different approaches and emerging developments around investing in steward-owned companies and aligned setups for investors.
Succession in Steward-Ownership: On the Role of Psychological Ownership in the Professionalization of Steward-Ownership Positions
Steward-ownership opens new paths for business succession – and raises the question: Who can and wants to become a steward-owner? Unlike traditional inheritance or sale, this route brings unique challenges. Together, we explore how psychological ownership can grow, be nurtured and supported in the next generation of steward-owners.
Transition into Steward Ownership: Insights and Lessons Learned from Practice
What can a transition to steward-ownership look like? What emotional journey do entrepreneurs go through, and how can owners find coherent financial compensation for the transition? Explore, discuss, and learn with fellow entrepreneurs about their path to steward-ownerhship – from the first article read to becoming a steward-owned business.
(German translation will be provided)
Beyond Steward-Ownership: Employee Ownership, B Corp and other models
Explore how steward-ownership connects with other innovative ownership and governance models like employee ownership, B Corps, Economy for the Common Good, and more. This workshop unpacks what these approaches share, where they differ, and how they can be combined to design a structure that truly fits the company’s needs.
Break
Steward-Ownership in the Bigger Picture: System, Structure, and Future Potential
Let’s zoom out and place steward-ownership within the bigger picture of today’s economic landscape. We ask what role ownership models can play as we face pressing challenges – from the rising concentration of power and money and democracies under threat. Together with experts, we explore why steward-ownership is more than a niche idea but a viable building block of our economic future. We look at legal frameworks needed to support it, explore where the model stands in a vibrant political process, and where its greatest potential lies for the future. In this session, one thing becomes clear: steward-ownership matters – for society, people and planet.
Moderation
Ownership Matters: Building Resilience and Innovation in an Age of Concentration
This panel explores how ownership shapes our economy. The dynamic group of entrepreneurs, changemakers and economists discusses why a rich variety of ownership models matter for a healthy market economy – particularly in a time of economic concentration that threatens our economic and democratic systems. Examine how diverse ownership approaches like steward-ownership can strengthen capitalism itself by fostering long-term innovation, independence, and resilience.
Greeting Address by German Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection Frank Schwabe
In German (English translation available)
Long-Term Entrepreneurship – A Pillar of the European Social Market Economy
The panel brings together political voices from conservative, social democratic, and green parties, highlighting the differing and overlapping perspectives on steward-ownership. The focus: the German debate on a new legal form for steward-owned companies “Gesellschaft mit gebundenem Vermögen”, which is intended to enable intergenerational entrepreneurial independence for businesses of all sizes. The discussion will not only address the political motivations for supporting this legal form, but also the experiences and lessons learned from the political process so far. Together with policymakers, we will look ahead at the upcoming legislative process and explore what impulses the German experience might provide for an international debate.
In German (English translation available)
Who Owns Our Digital Future? Steward-Ownership, Ecosia, and Independent Searching
What does it take for Europe to build its own search engine? Genica Schäfgen (Ecosia) shares the story of the search engine that plants trees — and why steward-ownership is key to keeping Ecosia independent. In a world where digital infrastructure is dominated by few, Ecosia shows how steward-ownership can secure sovereignty, innovation, and resilience in critical technologies. Discover how steward-ownership can help safeguard Europe’s digital independence while serving both people and the planet.
Speaker
Dinner
After a full day of learning, connecting, and exploring, we wind down with good food, warm conversations, and inspiring dinner speeches. Gather around the table with fellow participants and reflect on the day’s insights or take a final stroll through the venue to revisit what you’ve experienced, heard, and discussed – as the ideas of and around steward-ownership take root and begin to shape the thinking and actions we’ll carry beyond the conference.
A Poetic Provocation on Steward-Ownership
- 09/10/2025
- All Day
SO:REFLECTIONS
Explore. Reflect. Steward-Ownership.
This interactive installation invites you to engage with steward-ownership through an artistic experience. Not by thinking, but by sensing. Not by rushing, but by listening. It’s an invitation: to pause, to explore, and to take the time for your own way of reflection.There is no single lesson to be learned here. No one right way to experience this installation. Think of it less as a documentary, and more as an artistic space. A small journey through various, sometimes hidden, perspectives of steward-ownership.Installation by PURPOSE & the Foundation for Steward-Ownership
Artistic collaboration: Florian Hein, Konrad Walkow, Brian Morrow
Voices: Adah, Cacá Macedo
Curated and created by Florian Hein and Konrad Kadow in collaboration with the Purpose Foundation.
- 09/10/2025
- All Day
Networking Possibilities
We’ve heard you! SO:25 is intentionally designed to create more time and space to meet others, exchange ideas, and learn from one another. Whether over a morning coffee, during lunchtime conversations, in the generous breaks between sessions, or at the shared dinner in the evening – this conference thrives on togetherness. Throughout the day, you’ll find plenty of opportunities and formats to connect.
- 09/10/2025
- 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Ask Me Anything
Ever had a question about steward-ownership and related topics but never the right place to ask it? Always wanted to hear directly from entrepreneurs what it looks like in practice? Or simply in the mood for a good conversation?
Then come to our “Ask-Me-Anything”-Corner. Because this is exactly what this space is for. The Purpose team and selected steward-ownership experienced entrepreneurs will be here throughout the day. Ready for your questions, or just a nice chat.
Join us outside, in the Saal or SO: ConTent– just look for the silver balloons.
These people will be present at the AMA corner:
Despite all the invigorating input, we offer a breathable conference schedule – with enough coffee breaks, soul-searching and learning moments as well as time to get to know each other and exchange ideas with the other participants.