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.
Renee Hatcher Explores the Vital Role of Solidarity Economy and Cooperatives
Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes
54 minutes 26 seconds
6 months ago
Renee Hatcher Explores the Vital Role of Solidarity Economy and Cooperatives
March 27, 2025
Everything Co-op continues its Women’s History Month series centering on the theme “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating & Inspiring Generations,” set by the National Women’s History Alliance. This episode features Renee Hatcher, Professor and Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC Law. Vernon and Renee discuss the vital role of solidarity economy and cooperatives at this moment in history.
Renee Hatcher is a human rights and cooperative lawyer and solidarity economy organizer. She is currently a Visiting Associate Professor of Clinical Law at GW Law School in DC. She serves as the Director of the Community Enterprise & Solidarity Economy Clinic at UIC Law in Chicago, a pro bono legal clinic that provides free legal support to community-based businesses, non-profits, cooperatives, and other solidarity economy enterprises. Recently, Renee served as the Co-Director of Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem at CUPPA’s Center on Urban Economic Development (CUED). Renee has significant experience organizing and providing legal support to worker cooperatives and community-based initiatives to empower workers and community residents. Her work and research focus on legal and non-legal strategies to build power in Black, low-income neighborhoods and other communities of color rooted in solidarity economy organizing and theory.
In 2022, the city of Chicago allocated $15 million dollars to support the cooperative ecosystem, including a substantial grant to UIC, as the “hub” organization, to conduct research and convene the Chicago Community Wealth Building Ecosystem. Renee co-directs the “hub” with her close colleague, Associate Professor Stacey Sutton. Most recently, Renee served on Mayor Johnson’s Transition Committee on Economic Vitality and Equity. This appointment has been a part of Renee’s long-standing efforts to advance cooperative development in Chicago to improve the lives of Black, brown, and poor communities.
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.
