EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Matt has been with VEOC since 2014, where he has developed deep expertise in employee ownership while serving in a variety of roles before becoming Executive Director. He received his MA in History from UVM in 2011, where he studied economic history and the origins of cooperative finance.

Outside of his VEOC work, Matt has been involved on a volunteer basis with a number of co-op and community project projects, and presently serves as a volunteer board member of the Vermont Real Estate Co-op, the Oak Street Co-op, and Laboratory B. He is also personally interested in alternative investing to benefit broad-based ownership, and has pursued that both individually and via co-founding a social investment club.

Matt lives in the New North End of Burlington with his partner and their son, and in his free time enjoys gardening, tinkering with electronics and sustainable energy tech, and spending nice days rolling around town on his bike at a leisurely pace.

PROGRAM AND OPERATIONS GENERALIST

Joining VEOC at the end of 2022, Annie (they/them) is the newest addition to the team. At Real Pickles Cooperative, Annie helped steward the cooperative conversion during their 12 years as production manager and worker-owner. They also consult with other cooperative businesses and potential conversions outside of Vermont through the USFWC’s Coop Clinic. Their formal education includes a BA in Geology from Carleton College, a certificate in Environmental Education from the University of Washington, and a certificate in Training, Facilitation and Consulting from the sadly defunct Center for New Leadership at Marlboro College. The other main inspirations in Annie’s facilitation and training practice include Training for Change and AORTA: Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance. They are a proud athlete on Malia’s Dragon Boat racing team. They bike to work from Winooski where they live with some of their family, including the two best cats and a very young human.

2026 INTERN

Aaron is in the process of finishing his B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in sustainability and marketing at the UVM Grossman School of Business. At UVM, he also picked up a minor in food systems to explore the current challenges and potential surrounding his first love, food.

Aaron has been working in event management for a long time, but this is his first step into the world of employee ownership. He's stage-managed and produced numerous theater productions, and attended even more. He's worked for UVM's Event Services and Athletics departments for three years, so odds are you can find him at most sporting events, conferences, lectures, and whatever else is going on on a given day.

In his free time, Aaron enjoys going to farmers' markets and reaping the benefits in his cooking, and volunteering with local organizations that are making the world a better place.