2016 IPBC IGNITE CONFRENCE Day 1 Wednesday, September 28, 2016 Sage Presents Zen and the Art of Consulting with Ed Kless Part1

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, 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 Accountants’ Group of One Hundred, a think tank of leaders to address the future of the profession. He was named as one of Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the profession eight times, and selected as one of LinkedIn’s 150 Influencers.

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. He develops and delivers curriculum for Sage business partners on the art and practice of small business consulting including the Sage Consulting Academy, Business Strategy and Customer Experience Workshops. He also serves as the liaison to the Sage Leadership Association. Prior to joining Sage, Ed worked with Tipping Point Advisors, an organization dedicated to the growth and development of software implementation partners. In 1996, he co-founded Third Wave Business Systems, a Microsoft Dynamics GP partner that grew to 20 team members and $5 million in revenue. At Third Wave, Ed developed the implementation methodology and led the CRM and ERP consulting teams.

Ed is a frequent contributor to industry publications, including the Journal of Accountancy, Harvard Business Review and HR.com, and has spoken at many conferences worldwide on project management, pricing, and knowledge workers. He is also active in the Information Technology Alliance (ITA). He lives north of Dallas with his wife and two children and ran for Texas State Senate in 2010 and 2012 as a Libertarian.