A Centre for Employee Ownership has been created at the University of Manitoba, making it the only university in North America with such an area of specialization.

The announcement was made yesterday at the offices of Crocus Investment Fund and involved officials from the university and the labour-sponsored investment fund. Crocus was the driving force behind the establishment of the centre. The Winnipeg-based fund has been a strong advocate for employee ownership since it was formed in 1992.

The centre will administer a course in participatory management and support and fund research and further implementation of employee ownership in Manitoba. The province already boasts, proportionately, one of the largest collections of employee-owned firms in Canada.

There are now about 18 employee-owned firms that Crocus has assisted in Manitoba. The participatory management course, which Crocus also helped start four years ago, graduates close to two dozen people a year. The course had been delivered by the university's department of continuing education and will now become the responsibly of the new centre.

The U of M's I.H. Asper School of Business, Crocus and three of its investee companies -- Friesens Corp. of Altona, Cando Contracting of Brandon and National Leasing of Winnipeg -- contributed cash to the new centre, which is now funded for three years with an annual budget of about $180,000.

Emoke Szathmary, president of the U of M, was on hand for the announcement, an indication of the significance the university sees in the new centre. David Friesen, CEO of Friesens, is also chairman of the U of M's capital campaign. All 600 employees of his Altona book publishing company are shareholders of the company, which has had an employee ownership plan in place since the early 1980s.

"There is all sorts of research that indicates a company's performance increases significantly when employee ownership and participatory management plans are implemented," said Crocus CEO Sherman Kreiner, a key motivator behind the employee ownership movement.

Rob Warren, executive director of the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship, will be the interim head and will look to hire an executive director for the centre by next spring.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Correction: Friesens Corp. of Altona is not an investee company of Crocus Investment Fund, however David Friesen sits on the Crocus Board of Directors.