J. Tom Webb

Founder, Master of Management, Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU)

International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary's University

J. Tom Webb’s career has spanned industries and sectors in Canada and the United States of America ranging from grocery to IT, multistakeholder cooperatives to credit unions, and beyond. As the Founder of the MMCCU Program at Saint Mary’s University, his most impactful contributions are to co-op education.

Congratulatory Listings

BECU proudly congratulates Tom Webb and all 2025 Co-op Hall of Fame inductees.

Your contributions to the cooperative movement are monumental and enduring. This
recognition is a testament to your lifelong commitment to education, empowerment, and the spirit of cooperation. Thank you for inspiring generations of cooperators and for uplifting the values that make our movement thrive. Your legacy lights the path forward.

Plural_CUs_InAtlCanadaLogo_Horiz_Pantone_Eng_MOCKUP.png

Congratulations Tom! John Chamard, along with your cooperative friends and colleagues, are forever grateful for your lifelong commitment to the education of cooperatives & Credit Unions. You have impacted the lives of many people worldwide, in real and meaningful ways.

Congratulations to J. Tom Webb on being inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame! Your pioneering work in establishing the Master of Management in
Cooperatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) has transformed cooperative education
worldwide.

CLIMBS is inspired by your legacy and remains committed to promoting cooperative education through the Co-operative College of the Philippines, anchored on Coop Principle 5.

Your induction is not only a recognition of your extraordinary leadership, but also a
celebration of the cooperative spirit you have tirelessly promoted across borders.

In solidarity,
CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative, Philippines

As CFNE celebrates 50 years of financing cooperatives, we send a well-deserved congratulations to J. Tom Webb and all the 2025 Hall of Fame inductees. Your leadership inspires cooperative education and impact worldwide.

From Marketing Our Co-operative Advantage to the International Centre for Co-operative Management, your collaborative vision for education and training
rooted in the Identity has inspired generations of leaders to build a more inclusive, innovative, and impactful global movement. Thank you!

Thank you, J. Tom Webb, for your unflagging commitment to co-op education and the advancement of our movement, with much appreciation from the
Neighboring Food Co-op Association and our food co-op community across New England and New York State, including:

Brattleboro Food Co-op

Fiddleheads Food Co-op

Flatbush Food Co-op

Franklin Community Co-op

Hanover Co-op Food Stores

Littleton Food Co-op

Monadnock Food Co-op

Portland Food Co-op

River Valley Co-op

Willimantic Food Co-op

Congratulations on a lifetime’s achievement promoting co-operative education
around the world. From the Co-operative Group and fellow co-operators from the UK.

Tom — congratulations. Launching the St. Mary’s Masters has strengthened our movement. Your programs turn values into capability and raise the bar across
co-ops. With appreciation from all of us at VME Coop — thank you.

Kirstie Boyette, ICCM Graduate
Marilyn Scholl
Maureen McCulloch, ICCM Adjunct
Mary Griffin

Michelle Schry
Paul Hazen
Peg Nolan & Ruffin Slater
Randy Tate, ICCM Graduate
Ron Fox, MMCCU Graduate
Rosemary Mahoney
Sokchiveneath Taing Chhoan
Sonja Novkovic
Stephen & Lisa Dutcher
Stephen Gill
Suzette Snow-Cobb, MMCCU
Terry Appleby
Tony White
Valerieanne Byrnes, ICCM Master’s Graduate
Wendy Carruthers
William J. Nelson

Co-op Education Champion

Tom Webb’s career has spanned cooperative industries and sectors in Canada and the United States ranging from grocery to IT, multistakeholder co-ops to credit unions, and beyond. Arguably, his most impactful contributions are to education. He established the Master of Management: Co-operatives and Credit Unions (MMCCU) Program at Saint Mary’s University. This program has since evolved into the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM), offering a suite of education, training, and research programs elevating the cross sector cooperative movement globally.

Deeply Rooted in Cooperatives

Having begun credit union membership at the age of four days old, cooperatives and cooperation are deeply rooted in Tom’s identity. Growing up in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the home of the Antigonish Movement, Tom considers Moses Coady, a driving force behind the movement, one of his co-op heroes. The other is Don José María Arizmendiarrieta, the founder of the Mondragon worker cooperative network.

His co-op heroes lived in different countries that faced similar problems, but their actions were motivated by the same values. They both inspired the creation of cooperative networks that benefited the lives of tens of thousands of people and continue to offer an alternative way of organizing economies and societies. This mindset has guided Tom for over 45 years as a cooperative movement builder, manager, educator, convener, author, speaker, board director, and volunteer.

The Beginning of the MMCCU Program

For six years, Tom served as the Director of the Extension Department at St. Francis Xavier University, Moses Coady’s old position. He led a team that educated and organized people around cooperatives and community development. It was there that the Masters of Management Co-operatives and Credit Unions began. Later, it found a welcoming home at the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University and blossomed as the International Centre for Co-operative Management (ICCM). The program is now the most internationally renowned, English-language master’s level university program in the field of cooperative business and offered online to cooperators around the world.

The Development and Evolution of MMCCU

In developing the Masters of Management in Co-operatives and Credit Unions program, Tom and the team were determined that it be fundamentally different from an MBA. Every course should reflect the core difference of purpose between a cooperative and an investor-owned business. Marketing became Marketing our Co-operative Advantage and Human Resources became Leadership Development. A cooperative’s purpose to meet member and community needs was at the forefront of the curriculum.

Central to the success of the MMCCU program at ICCM was Tom’s vision for the Co-operative Management Education Co-operative (CMEC) which engages co-ops and educational institutions in the development of education, training, and oversight of programming. Among the first organizations from the U.S. to join the cooperative were America’s Credit Unions, NCBA CLUSA, National Cooperative Bank, Brattleboro Food Co-op, and Hanover Co-op Food Stores. Today, CMEC also includes the Federation of Southern Cooperatives and the Neighboring Food Co-op Association.

CEARC and Other Partnerships

Recognizing the need for both financial and non-financial performance analysis specific to the cooperative business model, Tom also founded the Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC) at Saint Mary’s University, which develops Statements of Recommended Practice (SORPs) for co-ops, Sustainable Development Goals reporting for cooperatives, and other projects.

The Masters program collaborated with co-operative academics in the University of Havana visiting three times between 2014 and 2016. The main sessions in 2015 included meetings with agricultural co-operatives evolved from collective farms and worker owned co-operatives created from state enterprises. In 2024, ICCM hosted an inaugural study tour to Costa Rica in collaboration with CEARC and the Universidad FUNDEPOS. The study tour focused on the Costa Rican cooperative ecosystem and their efforts towards sustainability.

Impact

As a part of the Centre’s work, Tom continues to serve as a professor and mentor and has led cooperative study tours to Italy and Spain as a course in the Masters program. The Study Tours engaged some of the top cooperative researchers and leaders in the world, building relationships across sectors and borders. His work has led to more than 500 cooperative and credit union leaders engaging in education to build their careers and the successes of their organizations.

The impact of his work had led to ICCM earning a reputation as an innovative program, resulting in an invitation to Saint Mary’s University to organize Imagine 2012: The International Conference on Co-operative Economics, at the start of the first International Co-operatives Summit in Quebec City in 2012 during the first UN International Year of Co-operatives. He also edited with Sonja Novkovic, Co-operatives in a Post Growth Era featuring the presentations from Imagine 2012.

Retired Life

Retirement, or as Tom sometimes calls it, re-exhaustion, includes gardening; looking after a small orchard; cutting, sawing, and splitting firewood; boating and fishing; volunteering on a housing cooperative board and with a refugee sponsorship group; and writing. He is currently working on his second book.

But even in retirement, Tom is consistently called upon and without hesitation answers every e-mail and phone call and strives to continue building our cooperative movement.

Leaving an Indelible Mark

Though technically retired, Tom continues to contribute to the movement through his service on co-op and credit union Boards, the work of his consultancy, Global Cooperation, and countless articles. His book, From Corporate Globalization to Global Cooperation: We Owe It to Our Grandchildren, brings together the insights of a lifetime of researching, organizing, teaching, and practicing cooperation.

Tom’s servant leadership and commitment to the Principle of Education, Training, and Information has left an indelible mark on the cooperative movement and he will be honored with induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame. Join us in Washington, DC on October 9 as we celebrate Tom and his contributions to the cooperative community.

Honoring and Planning Committee

Erbin Crowell . Karen Miner
Martin Lowery . Sonja Novkovic
Suzette Snow-Cobb

Nominated by:

International Centre for Co-operative Management and Neighboring Food Co-op Association

J. Tom Webb

Congratulatory Listings

Friends of J. Tom Webb

Honoring and Planning Committee