Air Date: September 18, 2025
Cooperative Advocate, Cooperative Development, Cooperative Hall of Fame

2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductee, Tom Webb Reflects on Advancing Coopertive Education and Global Leadership

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This episode continues our tribute to the 2025 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees with a special conversation featuring Tom Webb. Tom will reflect upon his career of advancing cooperative education and global leadership.

Tom Webb’s career spans cooperative sectors in Canada and the United States, from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions. His most enduring legacy lies in education, a cornerstone of the Co-operative Identity. As Director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Webb recognized the need for a graduate program focused on cooperative management. After years of persistence and collaboration, he established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) at Saint Mary’s University, now the world’s leading English-language graduate program in cooperative business, offered fully online.

The program’s success, built on Webb’s networking and support from co-op leaders in Canada, the U.S., and the UK, laid the foundation for the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). Today, ICCM offers degrees, certificates, executive training, study tours, and applied research, and is governed by the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative (CMEC), an international multistakeholder co-op with 80 members in 10 countries. Webb also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC), advancing co-op specific financial and sustainability reporting.

Though officially retired, Webb continues teaching, consulting, and writing. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation, captures a lifetime devoted to advancing cooperation.

For his lifelong dedication and personification of cooperative values, Tom Webb will be inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame on October 9 in Washington, DC. For tickets visit Heroes.coop website.

Our host, Vernon Oakes, is a consummate advocate for cooperatives. He is a Past President of the National Association of Housing Cooperatives, and he’s served on several boards and committees to advance the interests of cooperatives. Recently, he served on the Limited Equity Cooperative Task Force, established by Anita Bonds, At-Large Member of the Council of the District of Columbia. Vernon is an MBA graduate of Stanford University, who has used his business acumen to benefit the community, by promoting the added value of the cooperative business model.