We are excited to announce the selection of Leslie Watson as our new Executive Director. Leslie begins her new role this November, in close coordination with the previously announced retirement of outgoing Executive Director Kevin Edberg.
The CDS Board selected Leslie following an extensive national search. “We are delighted to welcome Leslie as the next executive director of CDS,” said Board Chair Alison Deelstra. “CDS has a mission to help start and grow cooperative enterprises in all sectors, and Leslie expressed her passion about the importance of having an organization like CDS so that co-ops and potential co-ops will have a place to go for resources, services, and education. Her background and experience, along with that passion, aligns with the team and mission at CDS.”
“I am overjoyed to join CDS and to begin working alongside its wonderful team,” says Leslie. “I have known and admired Kevin Edberg for many years and am humbled by the opportunity to succeed him as a steward of CDS, and to continue the good work to build the cooperative economy and help co-ops thrive throughout our region.”
Leslie comes to CDS from Columinate, a national consulting co-op that had its origins as a consulting group within CDS. In her decade of work with Columinate, Leslie has provided governance support and leadership development to co-ops and their boards of directors, supported capital campaign planning, and coached startups on their development journey. Since 2020, she has also managed Columinate’s Cooperative Board Leadership Development program, which serves numerous retail food co-ops throughout the country. Like so many, Leslie’s involvement with co-ops is rooted in aspirations and relationships within her home community of Northeast Minneapolis. She was part of the effort to open the Eastside Food Co-op in 2003 and is also a founding organizer of the Northeast Investment Cooperative, a co-op formed to make transformative investments in distressed real estate along her neighborhood’s commercial corridor. Leslie holds a Master’s in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey Institute, and a J.D. (non-practicing) from the University of Minnesota Law School.
