🏛️Constitution & Governance

Greaterthan has created its own organizational structure and governance to reflect our values and way of working, through a combination of legal elements such as Stewardship Ownership and a custom constitution, as well as governance rules that sit on top of these, which are described in this handbook under Agreements.

Our "global mother entity" is Greaterthan Collective Ltd, a registered UK Limited Liability Company incorporated in May 2018 (see company details on UK Company House). "Mother entity" refers to the fact that this is the structure that reflects our governance and agreed ownership structure (1 share held per partner), holds our brand license and operates legally under Stewardship Ownership (keep reading below for more about Stewardship Ownership).

We also have secondary legal entities in other countries, which are vehicles to help us do our work in different legal, fiscal and cultural contexts. Read more about regional nodes and entities here.

Stewardship-ownership

For Greaterthan, success as a business means a better livelihood through meaningful work for more people, more positive impact on the world and contributing to a thriving ecosystem.

Our company is not built to be exited, but to be a source of continuous value creation for all its stakeholders.

This is why we have chosen the model of Stewardship-Owned Company, using a Golden Share Model. As described by Purpose Fund, stewardship-owned businesses have two key characteristics:

Entrepreneurship = Ownership: Steward-ownership ensures that the control of the company is not a commodity anymore. The steering wheel – the majority of the voting rights – of self-determined companies lies in hands of people who are connected to the mission of the company.
Profits are a means to an end: With steward-ownership profits are a means to an end, not an end in itself. Instead profits directly serve the purpose of the company. They are used to pay back investors, re-invested in the company, or donated to charity.

To ensure that our commitment to these principles is upheld and cannot be changed, the charitable Purpose Foundation holds a "Guardian Share" in our company with veto-power. To read more about how Stewardship-Ownership works read here.

Governance

To read more about how our governance works, check out our agreements:

Constitution

You can see our full articles of association by clicking below or in this document.

Last updated 1 year ago

Stewardship-ownership

For Greaterthan, success as a business means a better livelihood through meaningful work for more people, more positive impact on the world and contributing to a thriving ecosystem.

Our company is not built to be exited, but to be a source of continuous value creation for all its stakeholders.

This is why we have chosen the model of Stewardship-Owned Company, using a Golden Share Model. As described by Purpose Fund, stewardship-owned businesses have two key characteristics:

Entrepreneurship = Ownership: Steward-ownership ensures that the control of the company is not a commodity anymore. The steering wheel – the majority of the voting rights – of self-determined companies lies in hands of people who are connected to the mission of the company.

Profits are a means to an end: With steward-ownership profits are a means to an end, not an end in itself. Instead profits directly serve the purpose of the company. They are used to pay back investors, re-invested in the company, or donated to charity.