Small businesses owners learned all aspects of succession planning at the 2026 Pittsburgh Business Legacy Conference on June 9, 2026. This event, sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Business and the Center for Governance and Markets, featured speakers including Pittsburgh Councilperson Erika Strassburger and Mayor Corey O’Connor.
In his keynote address, O’Connor touched on numerous ways the city is helping businesses such as creating the Pittsburgh Citywide Task Force on Employee Ownership, speeding up the permit process, tearing down dilapidated properties, and personal outreach. His team calls 10 companies every day. “We call and say thank you for investing in Pittsburgh, but also how can we help you expand? Because when your business expands, that provides opportunities for our residents,” says O’Connor.
The local business owners who attended gained connections with service providers and community organizations to help them plan their future and preserve their legacies, which in turn strengthens their communities.
Preparing for the Silver Tsunami
In Western Pennsylvania, approximately 17,000 businesses have an owner who is over the age of 55. This means tens of thousands of local main-street shops, family farms, and B2B companies across this region will face transition, sale, or closure over the next decade. Many of the workshop speakers addressed this “silver tsunami”—the retirement of generation X and baby boomer company founders.
SES ESOP Strategies, a Stevens & Lee Company, the premier sponsor of the conference, says they supported this conference to educate the market about the option of an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
“The number of business owners approaching retirement highlights a meaningful succession challenge, particularly among closely held companies,” says Ed Renenger, President and CEO of SES ESOP Strategies.
According to Renenger, “ESOPs are the most effective tool available to address this challenge while also permitting the owner to satisfy their legacy goals. ESOPs provide a path to liquidity for owners while preserving the business and its workforce all while keeping the business rooted in the local community.”
In Erika Strassburger’s speech, she said, “employee ownership pulls on my heartstrings. Every person can build wealth with their company.”
A Wide Range of Sessions for Business Owners
Conference attendees could choose from nine breakout sessions that covered the full range of legacy-focused succession pathways, including employee ownership, purpose trusts, multi-stakeholder partnerships and main street business legacy planning. Service providers led sessions on the legal, financial and other aspects of succession planning, and business owners who transitioned their companies to legacy structures shared their insights.
“We organized this conference to provide concrete resources to regional small business owners, catalyze a multi-stakeholder initiative to advance a legacy-focused regional economy, and place Pittsburgh Business at the center of this effort,” said Trevor Young-Hyman, associate professor of business administration and sociology at Pitt Business, a Ben L. Fryrear Early Career Faculty Fellow.
The response to this event has been very enthusiastic. Young-Hyman said, “partners are encouraging us to develop more programming and offering to work with us in the future.” Organizations interested in working with Pitt Business on workshops of this nature are encouraged to contact Young-Hyman at try6@pitt.edu