Mr. Hock is a native of North Ogden, Utah, where he began his business career in the financial services industry in 1950. During the next sixteen years, he held a succession of management positions with major financial institutions.

In 1968, he developed the concept of a global system for the electronic exchange of value and a unique, new form of organization for that purpose: a decentralized, non-stock, for-profit membership institution to be owned by financial institutions throughout the world. In 1970, the first portion of that organization, VISA U.S.A., was founded, followed by VISA International in 1974. It is now a $1.75 trillion enterprise jointly owned by more than 20,000 financial institutions in more than 220 countries and territories.

In 1984, Mr. Hock left the VISA organization to pursue his lifelong interest in the evolution of organizations and management practices, and the nature and extent of change they will encounter in the twenty-first century. In 1997, with the support of major foundations, he founded, a not-for-profit institution, Terra Civitas, to link individuals and organizations throughout the world in a concerted effort to develop, disseminate and implement more effective and equitable concepts of commercial, political and social organization.

In 1991, he became one of thirty living Laureates of the Business Hall of Fame. In 1992, he was recognized as one of eight individuals who most changed the way people live in the past quarter century. In addition to his work to foster organizational change, Mr. Hock is a writer, public speaker, and author of Birth of the Chaordic Age, published in November, 1999, by Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, California.