World's First CVO is Appointed Chairman

On May 2, 2006, Brendon Harrex, age 33, was appointed Chairman of Ward Wilson Ltd., a Chartered Accounting firm headquarted in Invercargill, New Zealand. Brendon, a Senior Fellow with VeraSage Institute, was appointed Chief Value Officer in March 2005, making him the first known CVO in the world.

In an e-mail informing me of his appointment, Brendon wrote:

"This is an honour for me and a position I am relieved to be in as I believe my appointment is an absolute validation of the Value Pricing and Total Quality Service principles you have been teaching for some time now."My chairman job description is based on a book Peter [Byers, Senior Fellow] referred me to, The Serving Leader. I used this to expound my vision for the role and for our business.

"We are dangerously close to becoming a firm of the future and I am extremely excited about that!!!

"I trust you will share in the joy of this occasion as the assistance and encouragement from yourself, Peter, Yan and the Verasage team is, and will continue to be significant in our success."Our plan to change the world progresses - one victory at a time!!!"

Congratulations Brendon! And to your firm, for having the foresight to nominate as Chairman a true visionary, someone who doesn't merely talk about changing the status quo, but actually carries it out on a daily basis. It confirms the VeraSage theory that while you can teach an old dog a new trick, it is the young dogs that are needed to invent new ones. It also illustrates how New Zealand, in many ways, is leading the Revolution in creating the Firm of the Future.