John Abrams is a business leader, speaker, and author who has spent over 50 years proving that a company can be good for its owners, its employees, its community, and the planet, all at the same time. In 1973, he co-founded South Mountain Company on Martha's Vineyard, a 40-person integrated architecture, building, and solar firm that became one of the first worker cooperatives in the United States and, at its peak, the highest-scoring B Corp in the world. When he retired in 2022, he passed the company to next-generation leadership entirely from within, a transition that took three intentional years and left the business stronger than ever.

That half-century of experience is now distilled into his latest book, From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership (Berrett-Koehler, 2025), which introduces the concept of CommonWealth Companies, organizations built on common ownership, profits, power, information, and purpose. The book is a practical guide for the roughly three million U.S. small business owners over 55 who face the "Silver Tsunami" of succession without a plan, offering employee ownership as a meaningful alternative to private equity buyouts, family handoffs, or simply closing the doors.

Through Abrams+Angell, the firm he founded with his partner Kim Angell, John now advises small businesses on worker cooperative conversions and helps them achieve social, environmental, and financial goals simultaneously. He is also the author of The Company We Keep and Companies We Keep, has written the Companies We Keep blog since 2009, and co-founded BuildingEnergy Bottom Lines, a thriving peer network of 70+ Northeast U.S. businesses in architecture and construction.