Meet the New Boss(es)

Last year, Ballard Market in Seattle asked Equal Exchange to open a café inside its store, a potentially lucrative venture. But the idea ran into resistance from some of the company’s employees, who moved to block it by invoking their authority to approve changes in operations. Dickinson and Everts, insisting the café was merely a “pilot project,” quickly approved the launch anyway, and after a few heated board meetings, the workers decided to let their bosses proceed—but only for 18 months, at which point a recertification vote is required. Even if the café flourishes, Equal Exchange workers have the power to pull the plug.

As contentious as that episode was, it’s nothing compared with what happened when the board demoted cofounder and executive director Jonathan Rosenthal. About eight years ago, Rosenthal started chafing under what he saw as the company’s conservative approach to decision-making—he wanted to more aggressively market its fair-trade mission and establish franchises in other parts of the country—and after poor health forced him to take a brief medical leave, the board and other cofounders called an emergency meeting and voted to ask him to step down. At a traditional company, Rosenthal could have sued. Instead, disenchanted, he eventually left the company altogether. The two sides have long since reconciled, with Equal Exchange owning a 20 percent share in Rosenthal’s new fair-trade banana company, Oké USA. To this day, however, Rosenthal hasn’t had a complete airing of the ouster with his old coworkers.

In the wake of Rosenthal’s departure, the balance of power at Equal Exchange continued to shift toward the workers, and away from the cofounders. That, in turn, has changed the cast of board elections, and the company; whether for the better is open to interpretation. “When I started, it was much more personal,” says sales manager Kristin Howard. “Everyone was lobbying everyone else and we all used to hang out all the time. Now it’s formalized it in a more positive way that has made it less personality-driven.”