2025 Revisited, A pivotal year for Steward-ownership
Steward-ownership is a simple idea: what if companies were built and run on two principles?
The first is that the company’s purpose is protected.
The second is that its control always rests with its stewards.
That’s the very heart of Steward-ownership.
At the same time, Steward-ownership remains a huge paradigm shift; A way of thinking that needs stories, and a deeper look into the movement itself.
So here is 2025 revisited. Some highlights.
Stories about Rethinking Ownership.
During the quieter Christmas weeks with more time for reflection, we bundled some powerful stories from the global Steward-ownership community. 6 stories from 2025 that we believe the world needs to know.
All in the same category: what if we rethink ownership?
About Europe’s ambitions for “digital sovereignty” and “strategic autonomy,” and how to prevent European tech infrastructure from being sold to the highest bidder.
About the brilliantly disruptive idea of Ecosia, offering Chrome to take over stewardship and turning it into a browser for climate impact.
About Netflix and Paramount hunting for Warner Bros, raising fundamental questions about how market power keeps accumulating in industries that shape how we think, feel, and see the world.
About Theresa Böttger from Karma Capital, a new VC with a pure focus on steward-owned companies. She stopped playing the game and started changing it.
About Meredith Whittaker from the steward-owned company Signal, challenging both Big Tech and the paradigm of shareholder primacy.
About Healthcare and Tom Mueller, who sees Steward-ownership as a concrete, working alternative to keep healthcare companies purpose-oriented, independent, and accountable to the people they serve.
Just follow our LinkedIn page for more stories.
Or scroll this slide deck to explore the essentials.
Yes, it’s a movement.
Since the term steward-ownership was coined in 2015, the movement has been united by one goal: making steward-ownership known and accessible to everyone. But how is the movement doing?
Well, since its start, the number of steward-owned companies has been growing faster than ever before.
We focused on insights from the great “Developmental Evaluation 2025” by our partner PURPOSE®. It evaluates how Steward-ownership and its ecosystem have evolved over the past year.
Here are four elements that show what is happening right now:
• PART 1 - Scaling up: it’s now on a global map
• PART 2 - Local fieldbuilding that delivers: from effort to results
• PART 3 - Academics in motion: initial interest became published output
• PART 4 - The buzz is out: now it’s informing the world
More than ever…
The world needs to know…
Steward-ownership can be a choice for every company.
As a business can be a prototype of the world you want to live in.
After being launched in 2025, we’re heading further.
Stay tuned!