Sean Hutchinson is a partner in the international value growth consulting firm Ready for Next, which was founded to help owners in the USA and Canada increase the enterprise value of their businesses, achieve transition-readiness, and ultimately harvest that value to fund their “third act.” 

RFN’s Value Accelerator is a process-driven, structured approach to increasing earnings, reducing risk and positioning the business as best-in-class.  RFN’s clients are privately held middle-market business owners in a broad spectrum of industries.  Ready for Next’s success is powered by one of the best qualified and most seasoned teams of advisors in the profession, all of whom are former business owners or C-level executives. 

Sean has been a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) since November 2008 (one of the first 100 to be certified), a CEPA course faculty member since 2014, has been honored by the Exit Planning Institute as Exit Planner of the Year & Leader of the Year, and was inducted into EPI’s CEPA Hall of Fame in 2024. He is recognized as one of the profession’s top thought leaders. 

He is also a 3rd generation heir to his family’s 67-year-old manufacturing business, a first-hand, very personal, and humbling experience that keeps him grounded in the realities of value growth and ownership transition. 

In addition to holding the CEPA credential, Sean is a Certified Merger and Acquisition Advisor (CMAA) and has served on the Boards of five private companies, including 13 years for a 90% ESOP-owned enterprise. He graduated in 1992 with a Master of Arts degree from Miami University of Ohio.