Today at 10:30am on WOL 1450 AM, Vernon Oakes interviews L.J. Taylor, Board Chair for Equal Exchange. Vernon and LJ will discuss governance and management of Equal Exchange, as related to the core cooperative principles and practices.

LJ Taylor is one of the 117 worker-owners of Equal Exchange. He is both a sales person (based in central Virginia), and Chair of the company’s Board of Directors. LJ has broad experience in the co-op economy outside of Equal Exchange, as well. He has served as Board Chair of the Co-op Fund of New England, a non-profit lender that provides financing for co-operatives across the Northeast, and has worked at Weaver Street food Co-op in Chapel Hill, NC.. LJ has also helped in the formation of the Independents Coffee Cooperative in Philadelphia.

During this holiday season Equal Exchange offers an opportunity for people to be socially responsible while impacting the lives of so many people in the Congo, by one simple act of kindness. When a gift is purchased from Equal Exchange the lives of five groups of people are impacted at one time. Click Here to see selections and learn more about how you can participate in this solution. If the promotion code of voakes is used on a purchase order before January 31, 2015, a 10% discount will be issued on the customer’s first order.

Equal Exchange is a specialty food worker-owned co-operative headquartered in Massachusetts, that sources coffee, chocolate, tea and more from small farmer cooperatives all over the world. They helped introduce the Fair Trade concept to the US coffee industry in the late 1980s and today sell a wide-variety of organic, Fair Trade goods including coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas and other foods. Their pioneering work helped to jump-start the Fair Trade category in the US, now worth over $2 billion annual.

Vernon Oakes is President of Oakes Management Inc. As President, he has renovated and managed his own properties, and those owned by other entities since 1985. Mr. Oakes is the immediate Past President of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives, and serves on several boards to advance the interests of cooperatives. He also formerly served as coordinator of the MBA program at Howard University, and is an MBA graduate of Stanford University, who has used his business acumen to benefit the community by providing quality housing for all populations. Vernon is a consummate advocate for cooperatives.

If you missed the last week’s interview with Beth Ann Caspersen, Quality Control Manager for Equal Exchange, Click Here!