Advisor Insights with Mark Veyret: 'To be the best you have to learn with the best.'

Advisor Insights

Published 06 November 2020

Mark Veyret is a global innovator – morphing knowledge into value, co-creating new business models, digital transformer and hungry for disruptive thoughts.

As the Global BD Leader, Entrepreneurial & Private Clients at PwC, Mark spends 80% of his time being globally responsible for the business development of the entrepreneurial and private clients segment of PwC – which is half of PwC’s business globally.

Mark works with leaders and teams to build PwC country businesses and work with partners serving our key private clients. With the other 20% of his time Mark works with the CEO’s and Boards of growth businesses, mentoring, consulting and/or serving on their Advisory Boards.

In his pro-bono work, he supports social entrepreneurs to mentor and coach organisation leaders and teams in Australia’s First Nations peoples, the Muslim women’s community and climate change groups.

A seasoned Executive and lifelong learner, Mark shares why the Advisory Board Centre Certified Chair™ qualification was a fundamental pillar to his work and a key connection point for continuing to develop his board portfolio.

I searched the globe for a qualification. I’ve done executive programs in four different universities, including Harvard and NYU Stern. But the Certified Chair Executive Program was the one that was actually of purpose. It was the only one around that I felt was of quality.

Mark Veyret, Certified Chair™

The Advisor Insights series are unfiltered conversations giving you a lens into real people and real businesses within the Advisor ecosystem.

This Advisor Insights conversation with Advisory Board Centre GM Penny Ellenger formed part of a larger discussion on the future of professional services and the importance of keeping current, curious and adapatable to remain relevant to your clients and organisations you serve.

Penny Elllenger: Mark, what was your principal motivation for looking at undertaking the Certified Chair Executive Program and what sort of sat behind that for you?

Mark Veyret: I think the most important thing is I work 80% of present with PWC and 20% elsewhere. And that’s part of a career transition for me. I wanted to make sure that I had the best practices, knowledge in respect of Advisory Boards and being the Chair of those particular boards.

I searched around and said, what is the qualification, the program, the experience I can get to do that. And as I checked it across, I thought, wow, the Certified Chair Executive Program qualification gives me this understanding from the Chair, from the Advisor, which is different from the professional advisor. What did that mean?

The second thing I appreciated was the fact that there was always like-minded individuals. So not only during the program, but afterwards in the meetings we have quarterly. I get to meet people that are like-minded. I always go back to the three H’s, the head, the heart and the hands. These individuals are very similar in terms of the way they think, the way they want to actually be passionate, how they serve their clients.

And importantly probably another reason for the Certified Chair was the hands-on bit, which was the tools and methodologies, the library, the resources gave me the opportunity to create boards, to reform boards and to be a great chair is some of the reasons why I undertook this qualification.

Penny Elllenger: What have been the benefits for you? How have you then been able to leverage this credential in your work?

Mark Veyret: The first thing, Penny, is that what it did was get me job-ready. Like I knew I have been a good professional advisor – that made logistical sense. I know I’ve been good at that, but that’s different when you’ve got to be on a board and Advisory Board. And particularly if you want to Chair a board, so one was the job-readiness. How could I quickly do that? So that was a good way of recognising things.

The second thing was I searched the globe for a qualification. I’ve done executive programs in four different universities including Harvard, NYU, Stern and so on. But this one was the one that was actually on purpose so not only was it job-ready, it was the only one around that I felt was of a quality to do.

I think the third benefit I received was is that the Advisory Board Centre has a professional standard as to what it’s like to have an Advisory Board performing at a high level. That’s not around anywhere else, there might be things in terms of governance, but not for Advisory Boards.

The benefit I got was this whole approach and a standard by which I could judge my performance from a best-practices level. These are some of the benefits that I saw as a Certified Chair™.