By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer 

Even though Daniel Jeffery is too young to drive or vote and his dad cashes checks for him, he’s the CEO of his own company.

Daniel, 14, may be the world’s youngest CEO.

While data isn’t readily available, there aren’t any indications that anyone younger than 13 has started their own company.

“He’s hands on, this is his gig,” said company president and Daniel’s father, Fred Jeffery. “I’m busy, my hands are full with other things.”

After spending a lot of time researching how a 13-year-old could legally start a company, Daniel found if a parent owned a business, there were no labor laws dictating if their child was too young to work.

So, the Eagle Ridge Junior High School eighth-grader raised the money to form a corporation, gathered and sorted all the paperwork for his father to sign, wrote bylaws and created The Conservation Society.

A certificate recognizing the business was signed by the Secretary of State on Sept. 30, 2008, just days before his 14th birthday.Daniel Jeffery: Daniel Jeffery, 14,
may be the world’s youngest CEO. He
is starting up a conservation non-profit
organization, the Conservation
Society.

“I had to get it done before my birthday,” he said of his Oct. 3 deadline.

Daniel spent many months researching how to legally form the company. “I spent many wasted hours to see if I could even be a CEO,” he said, “I also spent a lot of time getting incorporated … once you jump into it, you can’t stop.”

Additionally, he did field research, talked to lawyers, put off chores and homework and even developed a top-secret innovative marketing plan before making the company.

“I had to show him there’s more to life … you have to be well rounded,” his dad said, “I made him take a week off, he had to get his priorities right.”

While taking the week off was “tough,” Daniel said he is still making progress.

The Conservation Society

While it’s still developing, Daniel has high hopes for his business venture.

“It’s either going to be a disaster, or it will work out really well,” he said.

The company will be Web based, so overhead costs will be low. Its mission will be to take small amounts of donated money and redistribute that money to eco-friendly groups.

“The small amounts (of money) are going to add up – big time,” he said.

The Conservation Society will re-donate money to other non-profit groups around the world. For example, a company looking to develop alternative fuels, or replanting the rain forest or helping animals will be beneficiaries of Daniel’s company.

He also noted that donors will have the ability to track where their money has gone and eventually take tours of the places they helped.

Daniel didn’t want to say how he plans to market the company since it has yet to be tried, but getting people to donate money won’t be hard.

 “It has serious potential to work; it’s never been done before. It’s not like TV commercials or anything,” he said.

His dad is also in on the secrecy of the plan said: “everyone will have access to donate.”

 To learn more about the company, visit its Web site at www.theconservationsociety.org [2].   

Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com