Ronald J. Baker started his CPA career in 1984 with KPMG’s Private Business Advisory Services in San Francisco. Today, he is the founder of VeraSage Institute—the leading think tank dedicated to educating professionals internationally—and a radio talk-show host on the www.VoiceAmerica.com show: The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy. As a frequent speaker, writer, and educator, his work takes him around the world. He has been an instructor with the California CPA Education Foundation since 1995 and has authored fifteen courses for them, including: You Are What You Charge For: Success in Today’s Emerging Experience Economy (with Daniel Morris); Alternatives to the Federal Income Tax; Trashing the Timesheet: A Declaration of Independence; Everyday Economics; Everyday Ethics: Doing Well by Doing Good; The Best Business Books You Should Read; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers; and Innovating Your Business Model. He is the author of six books, including: Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing; The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn; Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators; and Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth; and his latest book, Implementing Value Pricing: A Radical Business Model for Professional Firms.

Ron has toured the world, spreading his value-pricing message to over 110,000 professionals. He has been appointed to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountant’s Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession; named on Accounting Today’s 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2011, 2012, and 2013 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession; voted number six and nine of the Top ten Most Influential People in the profession in 2012 and 2013; selected as one of LinkedIn’s 150 Influencers; and received the 2003 Award for Instructor Excellence from the California CPA Education Foundation. He graduated in 1984, from San Francisco State University, with a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a minor in economics. He is a graduate of Disney University and Cato University, and is a faculty member of the Professional Pricing Society. He presently resides in Petaluma, California.

Ed Kless joined Sage in July of 2003 and is currently the senior director of partner development and strategy for Sage Business Solutions in North America. He facilitates the Sage Leadership Academy, Sage Consulting Academy and is the liaison to the Sage Leadership Academy Alumni Association.

Before joining Sage Software, Ed worked with Tipping Point Advisors, an organization dedicated to software implementation in companies’ growth and development. Before that, he co-founded Third Wave Business Systems, a Microsoft Business Solutions Partner, in 1996, which grew to 20 team members and 5 million in revenue. At Third Wave, Ed developed the implementation methodology and managed the front and back office consulting teams.

Ed is a senior fellow at the VeraSage Institute, a think tank dedicated to eliminating billable hours in all professional organizations. He is a frequent contributor to industry publications and has spoken at many conferences worldwide. He is the co-host of VoiceAmerica’s radio show The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Knowledge Economy, which spawned the book The Soul of Enterprise: Dialogues on Business in the Knowledge Economy, both with Ron Baker.