September 18, 2025 - This episode of Everything Co-op continues our tribute to the 2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with a special conversation featuring Tom Webb. Tom shares insights from his lifelong work advancing cooperative education and global leadership and explores the enduring value and unique advantages of the cooperative business model.
Tom Webb’s career spans cooperative sectors in Canada and the United States, from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions. His most enduring legacy lies in education, a cornerstone of the Co-operative Identity. As Director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Webb recognized the need for a graduate program focused on cooperative management. After years of persistence and collaboration, he established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) at Saint Mary’s University, now the world’s leading English-language graduate program in cooperative business, offered fully online.
The program’s success, built on Webb’s networking and support from co-op leaders in Canada, the U.S., and the UK, laid the foundation for the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). Today, ICCM offers degrees, certificates, executive training, study tours, and applied research, and is governed by the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative (CMEC), an international multistakeholder co-op with 80 members in 10 countries. Webb also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC), advancing co-op specific financial and sustainability reporting.
Though officially retired, Webb continues teaching, consulting, and writing. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation, captures a lifetime devoted to advancing cooperation.
For his lifelong dedication and personification of cooperative values, Tom Webb will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame on October 9 in Washington, DC. For tickets visit Heroes.coop website.
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September 18, 2025 - This episode of Everything Co-op continues our tribute to the 2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with a special conversation featuring Tom Webb. Tom shares insights from his lifelong work advancing cooperative education and global leadership and explores the enduring value and unique advantages of the cooperative business model.
Tom Webb’s career spans cooperative sectors in Canada and the United States, from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions. His most enduring legacy lies in education, a cornerstone of the Co-operative Identity. As Director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Webb recognized the need for a graduate program focused on cooperative management. After years of persistence and collaboration, he established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) at Saint Mary’s University, now the world’s leading English-language graduate program in cooperative business, offered fully online.
The program’s success, built on Webb’s networking and support from co-op leaders in Canada, the U.S., and the UK, laid the foundation for the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). Today, ICCM offers degrees, certificates, executive training, study tours, and applied research, and is governed by the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative (CMEC), an international multistakeholder co-op with 80 members in 10 countries. Webb also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC), advancing co-op specific financial and sustainability reporting.
Though officially retired, Webb continues teaching, consulting, and writing. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation, captures a lifetime devoted to advancing cooperation.
For his lifelong dedication and personification of cooperative values, Tom Webb will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame on October 9 in Washington, DC. For tickets visit Heroes.coop website.
Jessica Gordon Nembhard & Ahzjah-Netjer Simons Share Insights Learned from Black Women Cooperators
Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
54 minutes 1 second
8 months ago
Jessica Gordon Nembhard & Ahzjah-Netjer Simons Share Insights Learned from Black Women Cooperators
March 6, 2025 - Everything Co-op launches its Women’s History Month series. The 2025 theme, set by the National Women’s History Alliance, is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” celebrating women leaders in education and mentorship. The inaugural episode of the series features cooperative advocates Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., Professor at John Jay College, and Ahzjah-Netjer Simons, Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Cooperative Development Center. Dr. Gordon Nembhard Ahzjah-Netjer Simons discuss the insights gained from their interviews with Black women cooperators, and their future plans.
Author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice (2014) and 2016 inductee into the U.S. Cooperative Hall of Fame, Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., is a Professor at John Jay College, City University of NY. She is a political economist specializing in cooperative economics, community economic development, racial wealth inequality, Black Political Economy. She is a member of the Cooperative Economics Council of NCBA/CLUSA; the ICA Committee on Co-operative Research; an affiliate scholar with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan; and past board member of Association of Cooperative Educators.
Ahzjah-Netjer Simons is a transformative leader committed to empowering cooperative businesses and communities through education, strategy, and innovation. She holds key roles such as Co-Executive Director of the Georgia Cooperative Development Center, P6 Ambassador for the NCBA, and President of Digico Global. With 25 years in media activism and 18 years as a cooperative leader, Simons has earned the CCMA Cooperative Service Award. She founded International Co-op Media and launched Co-op Nation to illuminate the cooperative movement and its impact. Additionally, she co-created Women In Cooperation, a pass the mic podcast, digital magazine, and community dedicated to uplifting and amplifying women in the cooperative space.
Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
September 18, 2025 - This episode of Everything Co-op continues our tribute to the 2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with a special conversation featuring Tom Webb. Tom shares insights from his lifelong work advancing cooperative education and global leadership and explores the enduring value and unique advantages of the cooperative business model.
Tom Webb’s career spans cooperative sectors in Canada and the United States, from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions. His most enduring legacy lies in education, a cornerstone of the Co-operative Identity. As Director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Webb recognized the need for a graduate program focused on cooperative management. After years of persistence and collaboration, he established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) at Saint Mary’s University, now the world’s leading English-language graduate program in cooperative business, offered fully online.
The program’s success, built on Webb’s networking and support from co-op leaders in Canada, the U.S., and the UK, laid the foundation for the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). Today, ICCM offers degrees, certificates, executive training, study tours, and applied research, and is governed by the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative (CMEC), an international multistakeholder co-op with 80 members in 10 countries. Webb also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC), advancing co-op specific financial and sustainability reporting.
Though officially retired, Webb continues teaching, consulting, and writing. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation, captures a lifetime devoted to advancing cooperation.
For his lifelong dedication and personification of cooperative values, Tom Webb will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame on October 9 in Washington, DC. For tickets visit Heroes.coop website.
