Learn how a business can grow and pass on its legacy while keeping stewardship in the hands of the community. At this panel you’ll hear from three entrepreneurs who took different approaches to succession planning from family and employee transition, to co-op conversion.
A business is a living organism. Healthy stewardship and care includes succession planning for when the time comes for you to pass your legacy onward.
Come learn and interact with a panel of small business owners who have taken different approaches to succession planning and legacy business ownership, from passing it on to family members, to selling to an employee or community member, or converting it to a worker owned cooperative business to stabilize the business for years to come.
With aging legacy business owners, Chinatown is at risk of losing many of its legacy businesses within the next decade. The work of individual’s like our panelists show us what the future of Chinatown could look like in the hands of its next generation.
Whether you're a business owner considering transition, or an individual considering taking over a family business, this event is for you. Join us for this candid conversation moderated by Anh-Thu Nguyen of Democracy at Work Institute.
Light bites, refreshments will be served + participants will be able to take some produce home courtesy of Tay Shing :)
Meet the Speakers:
Alice Choi-Barrick
Tay Shing Corp. of NY
Raised in Chinatown, by Hong Kong immigrant parents, Alice grew up immersed in family, culture, and small business life. The family lived above their store on Division Street, sharing a modest apartment with extended family and friends—Alice even recalls sleeping in a hammock above her parents’ bed as a child. Witnessing her parents’ resilience and work ethic left a lasting impression.
Alice attended Catholic school before earning a bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management with a minor in Sociology, followed by a master’s in Manufacturing Management from Penn State University. After several years living and working in Pennsylvania, she returned to New York when her father decided to retire. Alongside her brother, Anthony, a graduate of Binghamton University, she stepped into the family business. What began as a responsibility became a passion as Alice recognized the business’s role in preserving culture through food. As the company evolved to primarily serve supermarkets, she helped identify opportunities to reduce food waste by supporting less marketable products while expanding charitable and community initiatives. Along the way, the business has also become an unexpected bridge between generations, connecting American-born individuals with older traditions despite cultural differences.
Her journey reflects an evolving approach to succession—less a fixed transition and more an ongoing process. Together with her family, Alice continues to grow the business while adapting to an ever-changing landscape.
Taeil Kim
Sonbul
Taeil Kim is the head chef and owner of Sonbul. Originally from Los Angeles, Taeil initially moved to NYC to attend NYU in 2011, which he promptly dropped out of the next year and began going to Hunter College part time while working as a career barista for almost 10 years. He eventually transitioned to the role of line cook and prep cook in commercial kitchens from 2020 onward until becoming the owner of Sonbul.
Sonbul operates as a daytime cafe with Korean lunch foods and then convert to evening kitchen for dinner service. Taeil started Sonbul as a pop up and cooked in kitchen, at raves, outside of bars, and events for friends from 2021-2023. Taeil then ran Sonbul as a dinner restaurant from Jan - Sept 2024, when he completed a lease transfer from Burly Coffee over to Sonbul, and has been the owner of Sonbul Korean Cafe and Kitchen since then.
@sonbul.bk
Lauren Ruiz
DONNA
Lauren cut her teeth in the Miami cocktail scene, behind the bar and in the kitchen! Eventually, the industriousness and creativity of New York City’s food scene enticed her to make the move north, and she found a home at Donna. With an eye for industry trends and a background in art, marketing, and the legal profession, Lauren can swiftly pivot to meet the needs of the cooperative. Lauren fully champions Donna's vision to reimagine what a thriving business can look like when the workers are also the owners. Alongside her colleagues, she is ushering equity into an industry known to resist worker-friendly change. Lauren describes the relaunch of Donna as one of the first cooperatively owned bars in the U.S. as the most transformative experience of her time in hospitality.
@donnacocktailclub
Meet our Co-host + Moderator:
The Democracy at Work Institute (DAWI) is dedicated to building and resourcing worker cooperative businesses at scale throughout the country. Through our Workers to Owners Collaborative, we support businesses and small business services providers to explore worker ownership as a succession strategy and as a means to sustainably build community wealth. Learn more about our work on succession planning at http://www.becomingemployeeowned.org.
Anh-Thu Nguyen is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Democracy at Work Institute. She leads DAWI’s NYC work through the NYC Council supported Worker Cooperative Business Development Initiative, offering consulting, education and technical assistance on worker-ownership. Her work has encompassed international human rights law and policy, social enterprise, and sustainable fashion. She began her career with the UN Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials and the International Center for Transitional Justice before pivoting to social enterprise. She launched and has consulted on several sustainable brands in the prestige beauty and contemporary fashion spaces, including being on the founding team of MAKE Beauty. She was previously named a 2022-2023 Coro New York Immigrant Civic Leadership Fellow.
Manhattan Chinatown is facing a succession crisis. As small business owners age, many lack a plan for passing their businesses on. In immigrant communities like Chinatown, these legacy businesses are core to the neighborhood's character. In losing them, we risk the erosion of a community’s culture and identity.
In Good Hands is a conversation series hosted by Welcome to Chinatown that dives into the challenges and possibilities of succession planning. The series explores both the practical and personal sides of business transitions, offers insights into different paths forward, and creates a supportive space for those navigating this critical turning point together.