Taking stock.(Whispers)

There is an interesting discrepancy in the Arkansas Economic Development Commission's advertising contracts with the Little Rock ad agency of Stone Ward.

In the fiscal 2009 contract, President Millie Ward is listed as owning 51 percent of the company. For the recently signed fiscal 2010 contract, Ward's ownership stake dropped to only 20 percent. Why?

The company's Employee Stock Ownership Plan took effect during the past year. The plan will eventually transfer ownership from Ward and Larry Stone, CEO and executive creative director, to the company's employees.

"It is a way for [Stone] and I to get our value out of the agency over time," Ward said.

She added in an e-mail, "Larry and I decided over a decade ago that the best way to assure a second generation of Stone Ward was to ultimately have it become an employee-owned organization."

The ESOP planning began in 1998, but neither Ward nor Stone intend to exit the agency soon, she said. The pair started the company in 1991.

Stone Ward has paid into the account since implementing the plan, she said, much as other companies pay into retirement accounts. During the past year, the ESOP plan bought chunks of both Stone and Ward's ownership position.

"Now instead of the ESOP fund being invested in stocks and bonds, some is invested in the agency," she said.

Like Ward, Stone's ownership in the agency has decreased to 20 percent, with the ESOP owning the remaining 60 percent. And Stone and Ward now own stock through the ESOP.

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