Employee Ownership
It Makes Us Stand Out
For several decades, The Davey Tree Expert Company has built and maintained a culture of employee-ownership. Several important milestones since March 15, 1979, when ownership of the company passed from the Davey family to the employees, show how employee-ownership has developed over the past four decades.
*All photos and video footage taken prior to 2020.
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- 1977: Alexander M. Smith, CEO of Davey Tree and husband of Evangeline Davey, announces plans to sell the company.
- 1978: Davey Tree’s board of directors approve the employee’s purchase offer.
- 1979: Ownership of the company officially transfers to the employees.
- 1981: The company buys 62,000 shares from Martin L. “Brub” Davey, Jr. Brub delayed selling his shares so the employees could more easily afford the acquisition.
- 1982: The Employee Stock Purchase Plan is established, allowing employees to buy stock through payroll deduction at a 15-percent discount.
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- 1983: A three-for-one stock split allows active employees to buy three shares for every one original share purchased, thus making it easier—and more affordable—for active employees to obtain stock.
- 1987: A four-for-one stock split allows active employees to buy four shares for every one original share purchased.
- 1996: A two-for-one stock split is offered and followed by two more such splits in 1999 and 2008.
- 2005: “Do It Right Or Not At All: A Case Study of The Davey Tree Expert Company” is published by the Ohio Employee Ownership Center. Davey is listed on the National Center for Employee Ownership’s first Top 100 list as the 16th largest employee-owned firm in the U.S.
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- 2009: Davey celebrates 30 years of employee-ownership.
- 2014: Then Davey CEO and President Karl Warnke speaks at the Ohio Employee Ownership Conference.
- 2018: Forbes names Davey 294th on its Top 500 List of Best Employers in America for 2018.
- 2019: Davey celebrates 40 years of employee-ownership.
- 2020: Davey partners with Certified Employee-Owned (Certified EO), the leading certification program for employee-owned companies in America.
Davey Among Top 10 Largest Employee-Owned Companies
