Meet Leslie Davis, Torana Investment Committee Member

Leslie brings over 30 years of leadership in CDFIs and impact-focused private equity. She now advises institutional LPs and fund managers committed to building more inclusive markets. At Torana, Leslie champions employee ownership as a powerful tool to narrow the racial wealth gap and build generational wealth for frontline workers.

We sat down with Leslie to chat about her take on employee ownership and what currently keeps her up at night:

1) What excites you about employee ownership and how it applies to essential businesses?

Essential businesses — like those in food and agriculture, construction, healthcare and manufacturing — are the backbone of our economy but often overlooked in terms of wealth-building opportunities. Employee ownership flips that script. It turns frontline workers into stakeholders, creating more resilient companies and more equitable outcomes. That’s not just exciting — it’s transformative.  Employee ownership is a powerful business model that builds wealth, improves retention, and drives long-term resilience for both companies and the local communities where they are located.

2) What currently keeps you up at night?

It’s the confluence of several current events. There is deep uncertainty facing the workforce in essential industries, especially those that heavily rely on an immigrant workforce.  In food and agriculture, for example, these are the essential workers who plant, harvest, process, and distribute our food, and have been doing so for many years.  They know the operations inside and out and yet tightening immigration policies are leaving massive employment gaps that businesses are struggling to fill. It’s not just a labor issue; it has the potential to become a financial disaster for many essential industry sectors.

At the same time, thousands of business owners are aging out with no succession plan. We risk losing the people and the businesses that have kept our systems running. Employee ownership isn’t a guaranteed cure, but it’s part of the solution — giving workers a path to stay, to lead, and to own the future of these essential enterprises.

3) Any current book/podcast/show you recommend we check out and why?

The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America by Gabriel Winant

This book traces the transformation of Pittsburgh from a heavily industrial economy (steel mills, manufacturing) to one dominated by health care and related “care economy” sectors. Winant argues this shift is not just economic, but also social and political — it has reshaped how people work, who does the work, how communities survive, and what kinds of power workers have (or don’t).  While the industrial economy had its hazards and instability, there were usually stronger union protections, better wages, and benefits in many of those jobs.

As public discussion regarding Medicare/Medicaid cuts or ACA premium hikes ramps up, I am considering what happens if the care economy weakens, what the next “next shift” will be, and what will be lost or gained in the next shift for workers.

Thank you, Leslie!