Ginny Vanderslice, PhD

Virginia J. Vanderslice, PhD, is a Founding Principal with Praxis Consulting Group and is the firm’s immediate past President, a position in which she served for 21 years since co-founding the firm. Ginny focuses on aligning leadership, culture, and strategy to enhance organizational performance to increase share value for employee owners.

Ginny has more than thirty years of experience assisting employee-owned companies in the areas of leadership development and organizational culture transitions designed to maximize the opportunities that come with employee ownership. A major focus of her work during the last ten years has been designing and delivering leadership development programs that support the creation and maintenance of high performing ownership cultures and that deepen each firm’s leadership capacity. Employee ownership brings both opportunities and challenges for leaders that are different from those in traditionally owned companies. To support the long-term sustainability of employee-owned companies, her work includes assisting firms in creating succession systems that cover all key organizational roles, incorporating executive assessment and individual or group coaching where appropriate.

Ginny has published widely in both trade and peer review journals. In addition to her work at Praxis, Ginny is a faculty member of the graduate program in Dynamics of Organization at the University of Pennsylvania where she teaches courses on organizational change. Ginny is the founder and Academic Director of a unique leadership development program for current and incoming CEOs/ Presidents of employee-owned companies. The program is offered by the University of Pennsylvania in partnership with the Employee Ownership Foundation.

Ginny holds BS and MS degrees from Cornell University and a PhD in the social psychology of groups and organizations from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Articles by: 

Ginny Vanderslice, PhD

Leadership Development and Succession in Employee-Owned Companies

Succession planning and leadership development are two sides of an integrated whole that is essential for companies that seek to fully leverage employee ownership and achieve long-term sustainability.

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Looking Back. What Have We Learned?

What lessons emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic?

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Webinar: Using Research to Build an Ownership Culture

Learn about the research on the core elements of an ownership culture that drive company performance.

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Book Review: Leadership BS

Strong organizations build structures and policies that support individual leadership development.

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Virtual Panel on Shared Ownership moderated by Ginny Vanderslice at Rutgers University

Ginny Vanderslice moderated a panel of ESOP CEOS, who discussed ownership culture, leadership in employee-owned companies, and the impact of the ESOP structure in their companies' success.

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Succession Planning for Long Term Sustainability

A succession plan should spell out a process that identifies and develops those who, with time and the right experiences, could be ready to move into not only the CEO role, but other key roles within the organization.

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Governance Issues and Best Practices in Professional Services Firms

This white paper outlines governance issues, options, and best practices in privately-held professional service firms.

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Harnessing the Power of Ownership Passions: Creating an Ownership Vision

This article explores how companies can develop an ownership vision that reflects their strategic business goals.

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Eight Ideas for Demystifying Your Board

Effective boards make a significant contribution to their company’s success. However, in many cases, employee owners do not understand why their organization has a board, what the board does, what kinds of decisions the board makes, and, ultimately, how their board adds value.

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Getting Your Company Ready for an ESOP: The Ownership Culture Perspective

This article describes the initial challenges that all ESOP companies face, and offers suggestions for meeting those challenges.

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Leadership Development in ESOP Companies

When leaders and managers have strong leadership skills and when those skills extend to more people in an organization, a company’s ability to manage internal and external challenges is enhanced, and unanticipated changes in personnel can be managed with minimal disruption.

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Leadership Challenges in ESOP Companies

Effective ESOP leadership is different than effective leadership in companies with more traditional ownership structures. The opportunities are greater and so are the challenges. Leaders in all companies need the basics of business acumen, strategic perspective, market awareness, and the ability to develop and communicate a compelling vision.

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Effective Leadership Transitions

Hiring the CEO is typically a responsibility of a company’s Board of Directors. However it is often the case in ESOP companies that the first leadership transition following an ESOP’s implementation is made prior to the creation of a fully functioning Board.

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How We Work Here: Introducing New Employees to Your Culture

Understanding and connecting to a company's culture can encourage an employee’s engagement and commitment to the firm.

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Building Long-Term Value: Developing a High-Performance Ownership Culture

An ESOP can be an effective tax-advantaged means of creating shareholder liquidity. At the same time, the ESOP provides an additional benefit for employees. But the ongoing payoff of the ESOP is based on its ability to align stakeholder interests.

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