7:11am, silence. Five seconds pass which feels like five hours. A loud cry fills the room and William James Ferguson is born. My life changes forever. Everything is ok - he's healthy.

However, I immediately know I have to make some major life changes but I didn’t really know what, or even how.

1983. I was born in Dundee, moved to Dubai at 10 months old, enjoyed a short stint in Ecuador, then moved to the Aberdeen area in 1990. I was sport-mad growing up with golf being my true passion. A self confessed geek, I was obsessive about how things worked and why. For example, it wasn’t unusual for my parents to find me glued to Tomorrow’s World or with my head in an encyclopaedia. I was conscientious at school, never in trouble, and I scored good grades.

For the past 17 years I have supported accountants to find them their ideal job. Like a number of careers it happened by chance but I’m glad it did. Has it defined me? Probably. It’s been a whirlwind of long hours, massive highs, crushing lows, success, disappointment, and rapid career progression.

Mortgage by 25, nice cars, nice holidays - check . Have I enjoyed it? Absolutely. But was it everything I hoped it would be? Yes and no.

During my teens, 20s and early 30s I bought into the maxim that true happiness was to be gained by going to university, securing a good job, climbing the career ladder and obtaining material wealth. The ‘Western ideal’ I suppose.

After becoming a father my mind started to question things. I think it had been doing so for several years to be fair and my son being born was my tipping point (or eureka moment perhaps?). I’m a voracious reader having read 600 books over the past 12 years; dissecting philosophy, mindfulness, success and ultimately… happiness.

September 2018. After months of discussion at home I decide to bite the bullet and to make some significant career changes. At the time I was working with a fantastic group of people and I was a part owner of a business. We were going from strength to strength and the future was to some extent mapped out. It was my first experience as a business owner and I had learned a great deal. Professionally, it was one of the most successful periods of my life.

However, it simply wasn’t right for me.

I sold my share in the business with the view to taking 12 months off to gain perspective on what I, and we as a family, wanted the next chapter of our lives to look like.

This resulted in Becca and I launching Vero in the December of 2019. We had a clear vision of what we wanted to offer by focusing on providing a truly holistic service which went far beyond the more traditional recruitment model.

Despite the challenges of the oil price crashing and then Covid bringing the world to a halt shortly after, Vero has far exceeded our expectations.

Now four years in, we have developed an incredibly loyal client base and we’ve been fortunate to build a really niche brand in an incredibly challenging market, whilst maintaining a healthy balance around family life.

We've achieved this by being incredibly selective about what we do and who we work with.