Brad Smith became Intuit's president and chief executive officer in January 2008, culminating a five-year rise through the company where he successfully led several of its major businesses. Intuit is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses, financial institutions, consumers and accounting professionals, and is consistently ranked as one of the most-admired software companies and best places to work.

As the company marked its 25th anniversary in 2008, Smith celebrated the past while creating a strategic vision that recognizes important market shifts that will serve as growth catalysts for Intuit's future. Among the most significant trends is the accelerating shift to a "connected services" world, where people and businesses increasingly go online to manage their lives, and abandon the traditional paper-based, human-produced, brick-and-mortar bound services of the past. Intuit is uniquely positioned to take advantage of these trends and help drive the shift to a connected services economy.

In the midst of this change, Intuit's mission remains enduring: To be a premier innovative growth company that improves its customers' financial lives so profoundly that they can't imagine going back to the old way. The company's strategy builds on this sense of purpose and foundation of success, while capitalizing on the current market shifts to accelerate Intuit's business performance.

The three-point strategy focuses on:

• Driving growth in the core businesses where Intuit has high share versus look-alike competitors, but low penetration versus the overall market opportunity.
• Building adjacent businesses and entering new geographies, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets.
• Accelerating the transition to a greater mix of connected services, which now represents over half of the company's revenue.

Before being named CEO, Smith was senior vice president and general manager of Intuit's Small Business Division. Appointed to this position in May 2006, Smith was responsible for the company's small business division which included the portfolio of QuickBooks, Quicken and Payroll products, serving 7 million small businesses. Before moving to the small business division, he led the company's Consumer Tax Group in San Diego from March 2004 through May 2005. The group produces TurboTax, the nation's leading consumer tax preparation software.

Smith joined the company in February 2003 as the vice president and general manager of Intuit's Accountant Central and Developer Network in Plano, Texas. Previously, he was senior vice president of marketing and business development at ADP. Smith also held various sales, marketing and general management positions with Pepsi, Seven-Up and Advo, Inc.

Smith earned his master's degree in management from Aquinas College in Michigan and a bachelor's degree in business administration from Marshall University in West Virginia.