About our guest: Rod Drury

Ronald J. Baker started his 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 improving the professions for posterity.

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.

He is the author of the best-selling marketing book ever written specifically for the professions, Professional’s Guide to Value Pricing, Sixth Edition, published by CCH (out of print). His book, The Firm of the Future: A Guide for Accountants, Lawyers, and Other Professional Services, co-authored with Paul Dunn, was published in April 2003 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and was the 2003 Book of the Year on SmartPros.com and is in its sixth printing. His Intellectual Capitalism Series (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) consists of three books so far: Pricing on Purpose: Creating and Capturing Value, published in February 2006; Measure What Matters to Customers: Using Key Predictive Indicators, released September 20, 2006; Mind Over Matter: Why Intellectual Capital is the Chief Source of Wealth, published in November 2007; and his latest book published in December 2010, 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, and 2012 Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession; voted number six of the Top ten Most Influential People in the profession in 2012; 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.