Differentiated holding company structure will ensure alignment among all stakeholders, enable investment in employees, and focus on long-term value creation

Nine Dean, a newly established holding company, today announced its official launch. Backed by a significant anchor investment from the Ford Foundation and founded by a seasoned team with deep expertise across all facets of business ownership—including entrepreneurial ventures, capital markets, credit, private equity, and operations—Nine Dean will focus on acquiring middle-market businesses, a vital segment of the economy, and unlocking long-term value through operational excellence.

Nine Dean will take an innovative approach to propelling business growth, operating as a permanent holding company that aligns all stakeholders and focuses on operational improvements. The team will leverage their operational expertise to promote continual optimization and invest in their operating companies’ most valuable asset—employees—to drive profitability. In doing so, Nine Dean endeavors to generate attractive and stable risk-adjusted returns.

“Nine Dean aims to be a permanent partner—one that measures success not in quarters, but in generations,” said Aren LeeKong, CEO of Nine Dean. “The combination of our holding company structure and our team’s extensive operational and financial expertise, enhanced by the investment from the Ford Foundation and partnership with the Good Jobs Institute, will allow us to invest in our future companies, and in particular, their people, for the long term. We believe that by aligning with all stakeholders and prioritizing Quality Jobs, we can help businesses prosper for decades to come.”

Data shows that 62% of U.S. employees are not engaged at work. The consequences of this are significant: disengaged employees cost the U.S. economy up to $605 billion each year in lost productivity. As part of its approach, Nine Dean has engaged the Good Jobs Institute, a nonprofit consultancy that helps companies improve the lives of their employees and boost their performance by implementing the "Good Jobs Strategy," which focuses on investing in employees and making smart operating choices to increase employee productivity, motivation, and contribution, ultimately promoting best-in-class operations and business growth.

“A company’s success starts with superior operational design, but you can only execute at a superior level when your workers are engaged. World-class operations are not achievable without meaningful investment in corporate culture and human capital,” said Roy Swan, Head of Mission Investments at the Ford Foundation. “Nine Dean is Mission Investments’ largest direct investment commitment to date, demonstrating our belief in the profit potential of Quality Jobs. We’re excited to collaborate with Nine Dean’s talented team to cultivate great corporate cultures that aim to uplift employees, deliver excellent customer service, create great products and services, and build healthier families and communities where they operate.”

“When companies invest in their people through fair compensation, comprehensive benefits, and career advancement opportunities, and ensure that employees’ work is motivating and productive, they create a powerful ripple effect that extends beyond individual well-being to improve customer value, reduce turnover, fuel productivity, and foster sustainable business growth," said MIT Sloan School Professor and co-founder of the Good Jobs Institute, Zeynep Ton. “We look forward to helping Nine Dean and its future operating companies achieve superior financial and operating performance."

Learn more about Nine Dean at www.ninedean.com.

About Nine Dean

Nine Dean is a holding company that acquires middle-market businesses and positions them for enduring success through operational excellence and investing in their most valuable asset: employees. The firm’s permanent holding company structure aligns all stakeholders and invests in employees to drive profitability across its operating companies, focused on long-term value and sustainable growth. Based in New York City, Nine Dean was founded by a seasoned team with deep expertise across all facets of business ownership, including entrepreneurial ventures, capital markets, credit, private equity, and operations.

About the Ford Foundation

The Ford Foundation is an independent organization working to address inequality and build a future grounded in justice. For more than 85 years, it has supported visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide, guided by its mission to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, promote international cooperation, and advance human achievement. Today, with an endowment of $16 billion, the foundation has headquarters in New York and 10 regional offices across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

About the Good Jobs Institute

The Good Jobs Institute is a non-profit, established in 2016 in Cambridge, MA. Its mission is to help companies thrive by creating good jobs. The institute is built off Ton’s research in retail operations, highlighting companies that have created good jobs while outperforming peers in terms of customer satisfaction and financial performance such as Trader Joe’s, Mercadona, Costco and QuikTrip. http://www.goodjobsinstitute.org

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