George B. Sanders Jr. (Ben)

Ben Sanders is Of Counsel to the firm where he is a member of the Business & Corporate Services Group. His practice focuses on management buyouts using ESOPs and executive compensation for public and privately held businesses which includes clients in the healthcare and long-term care industry. He has extensive experience in designing and implementing ESOP transactions, executive compensation programs and mergers and acquisitions. Ben spends his time in both the Louisville and Nashville offices of Stites & Harbison.

Mr. Sanders has been designing and implementing ESOP transactions and management buyouts since 1984. His clients include companies in industries as diverse as aerospace, banking, petroleum distribution, lumber brokerage, suppliers to NASA and the military, capital equipment, homebuilding, chemical distribution, commercial lighting, engineering, media and entertainment, material handling, pharmaceuticals, and privatized correctional facilities. Mr. Sanders has represented business owners, management buyout groups, and ESOP trustees, and has often served as “counsel to the deal,” working with other counsel to design transaction structures that accomplish the needs of disparate parties. In addition, Mr. Sanders has successfully defended plan fiduciaries in significant fiduciary liability cases brought by the U.S. Department of Labor. Mr. Sanders serves as an outside director on the boards of several ESOP owned companies in New England and the Southeast.

Mr. Sanders is experienced in tax, accounting and disclosure issues surrounding executive equity and deferred compensation in public companies, and knowledgeable regarding corporate compensation theory and practice.