For Renee Russo, business has always been deeply personal. Her experience building, scaling, and exiting a technology business taught her many hard lessons that no textbook can.
Her belief that the human matters most has been the foundation of her work as a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA®) and Value Growth Advisor, and it has helped define the impact she has made in the exit planning community and the profession at large.
It’s also why she stands out as the 2026 Peter Christman Exit Planner of the Year.
Renee’s journey to becoming the 2026 Exit Planner of the Year has been shaped by her lived experiences as a business owner and by spending more than 6,000 hours with owners and their leadership teams.
She and her husband experienced firsthand many of the challenges of growing a small business and raising a young family. On top of that, they navigated a cancer journey, partner disputes, and financial distress.
When that personal and business relationship reached its breaking point, Renee searched for a better way forward. That started with reading the book Traction by Gino Wickman, creator of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS). It became her field guide and gave her the tools to create the structure and systems that put them back in control of their lives and futures.
“The impact was so profound that I decided I wanted to help improve the lives of more entrepreneurial families. I then became an EOS Implementer, and I built my business coaching practice to help owners move from crisis to control,” she says.
That foundation still defines Renee’s work today. She helps owners clarify their vision and align their team with where they want to go, using proven systems and technology to drive the accountability they need to achieve their goals.
Her own double exit from her business and marriage showed Renee the real cost of lacking early-stage exit planning and the implications of putting business needs above personal ones. Though she could not go back and change her circumstances, she committed to finding a better way to help owners de-risk themselves and put them in control of their future.
In her search for a solution, Renee discovered the book Walking to Destiny by Christopher Snider, creator of the Value Acceleration Methodology™ (VAM) and Chairman of the Exit Planning Institute® (EPI). It completely reshaped the way she thought about her work and changed her approach altogether.
Now, as a CEPA, Renee’s work with business owners starts with putting their needs and their freedom first. She prioritizes the Personal Leg of the Stool from the first conversation and throughout every stage of the journey. She says that advisors can’t help owners get what they want until they understand who they are, what they value, and where they want to go in life.
That owner-first mindset is central to her philosophy. For Renee, the CEPA can have a life-changing impact on the owner and their family when they combine their technical expertise with deep human empathy and care.
“In the modern world of advisory, where owners have unlimited access to information, the role of the CEPA must now focus on forming deep, human-level connection, and trust,” she says. “What owners need now, more than ever, is guidance and support from an advisor who sees them, hears them, and holds space for them at each stage of their journey.”
This doesn’t mean the advisor has to be the owner’s therapist. Instead, Renee describes the role as a “compassionate witness,” someone willing to meet business owners where they are, sit with them in their discomfort, and help keep them motivated to move toward their vision and goals.
“Believing in them is the greatest gift we can give owners. Sometimes they lose faith and doubt themselves. It is important that we keep the light on for them when they may feel lost, and help them navigate through challenging times,” she says.
Renee notes that many owners initially feel uncomfortable about prioritizing their needs. She shares that they often struggle with feelings of unworthiness and fear of being seen as selfish. This is why she feels it is so important for CEPAs to create a safe space for owners to do their personal work and to support them in moving from self-doubt to self-confidence.
Renee’s impact extends beyond the business owners she works with directly. Through Exit Mentor, a peer group and online learning platform, Renee works with other advisors to help them turn theory into action, amplify their impact, and build a practice aligned with their goals.
She integrates the power of peer-based learning, business best practices, and modern technology solutions to help her peers launch and lead their practice with confidence. Renee believes that the primary differentiation between good advisors and great ones is the extent to which they practice what they preach.
“When a business owner turns to you and asks you if you take your own medicine, you had better be able to say yes, and speak to the first-hand benefits of how the work has impacted your practice and your life,” Renee says. “Business owners choose people they trust. This is the fastest way to build trust,” she adds.
Renee is helping to shape the future of the exit planning profession. She comes to this work as a business owner first and an advisor second and works to raise the standard of exit-planning advisory services and to build more accessible solutions for business owners.
Renee says she is committed to “making exit planning so simple, you’d be crazy not to do it.”
She holds the 2026 Peter Christman Exit Planner of the Year award and serves on the EPI Thought Leadership Council because she understands the human-level impact of the work and is committed to helping her CEPA community improve the lives of every business owner they encounter.
“When we create value for owners, we create choices. In those choices lies their freedom,” she says.
Stay tuned to our blog for more of Renee’s insights on how advisors can leverage modern tools to create more value and better serve their business owner clients.