Our People

Mr John Hoffmire

Research Associate

Saïd Business School

John’s achievements in both the academic and business worlds are extensive and – having participated in work, research and speaking tours in 99 countries – John is regarded as one of the leading experts in his field. His pioneering approach has led to achievements such as leading the first sale of shares for a microfinance bank to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan at K-REP in Kenya.

John is chairman of Cadence Innova, a change management consulting firm based in London. Before joining Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and becoming the Director of the Centre on Business and Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, John had a twenty-year career in equity investing, venture capital, consulting and investment banking. His work has had a particular focus on Employee Stock Ownership Plans. As founder and CEO of his own investment-banking firm, he helped employees buy and manage approximately $2.2 billion worth of ESOP stock. He sold his firm to American Capital, which then went public. John left American Capital as Senior Investment Officer when the company reached $1 billion in assets. After leaving American Capital, John was Vice President at Ampersand Ventures, formerly Paine Webber’s private equity group. Earlier in his career, after he finished his PhD at Stanford University, he was a consultant at Bain & Company. Some of John’s writings include:

Chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Mutual, Co-operative and Co-Owned Businesses Joseph Blasi, Jonathan Michie and Carlo Borzaga. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2017

“Huawei’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan and its Effect on Productivity: A Comparative Analysis of the 2010–2014 Financial Data of Huawei and ZTE.” Alexander Peng & John Hoffmire; published on the website of the Center on Business and Poverty, 2015

“Employee Ownership and the John Lewis Partnership”, Deseret News, 2015

“ESOPs and Mezzanine Financing,” with David Ehrenfest Steinglass, ESOP Association, 1998

“Competitive Strategy for ESOP Companies,” ESOP Association, 1996

How to Market Your ESOP Company, ESOP Association, John Hoffmire (ed.), 1993

“Practice Note: Questions and Answers Regarding ESOPs for Family Businesses,” with J. Willis and R. Gilbert, Family Business Review, Volume 5, Number 2, Summer, 1992

“ESOP Implementation in the USSR and Yugoslavia,” with David Ellerman, in Employee Stock Ownership Plans, R. Smiley and R. Gilbert, Prentice Hall, 1990

“Practitioner Conduct: The Need for Open Debate,” Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance, Volume 2, Number 2, 1990

“A Quantitative Approach to ESOPs for Unions and Managers”, ESOP Association, 1989

“Using Earnouts to Implement ESOPs in Emerging Market Economies,” ESOP Association, 1989

“ESOP Options for Distressed Companies,” ESOP Association, 1989