Brad D. Smith

Brad D. Smith was born on April 6, 1964, in Huntington, West Virginia, and grew up in nearby Kenova.⁠[1]

He recalled: “I grew up about as far from Silicon Valley as you can get in a small town in West Virginia called Kenova.”⁠[2]

In November 1970, when Smith was six, a plane carrying the Marshall University football team crashed near the Tri-State Airport, killing all 75 people on board. He cites the crash as the moment he learned what he considers life’s greatest lessons—integrity, humility and teamwork—and recalled: “I watched a community come together.”⁠[2]

At 14 he enrolled in a martial arts academy; he later said the greatest lesson of that training was a leadership philosophy that guided him for the rest of his life.⁠[2]

Smith graduated from Ceredo-Kenova High School and attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for one semester before returning to West Virginia to enroll at Marshall University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1986.⁠[1][3]

He began his business career with a sales role at PepsiCoPepsiCoPepsiCo, Inc. is a global beverage and convenient food company headquartered in Purchase, New York.Open the full entry while pursuing his master’s degree, which he earned in management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.⁠[2][4]

After PepsiCo, Smith held positions at 7-UP and ADVO before joining ADP as senior vice president of marketing and business development.⁠[2][5]

In 2003 Smith joined the financial software company Intuit as vice president and general manager of Accountant Central & Developer Network and was later promoted to senior vice president and general manager of the Small Business Division; he worked in the Consumer Tax Group and Small Business divisions, home to products such as TurboTax, Quicken and QuickBooks.⁠[2][5][1]

Smith was president and chief executive officer of Intuit from January 2008 to December 2018 and also served as chairman of the board from January 2016 to December 2018. He was Intuit’s fifth CEO.⁠[6][7]

During his 11 years as CEO, Intuit changed from a North American desktop software company into a global cloud-based platform with a portfolio that included TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint.⁠[4]

On his personal website he states that during his tenure Intuit’s customer base grew to nearly 50 million worldwide, its stock rose 588% and its market capitalization approached $60 billion.⁠[5]

He was a director of Nordstrom from 2013 to 2022, serving as its chairman from 2018 to 2022, and a director of SurveyMonkey (later Momentive) from 2017 to 2022. He also served on the board of Yahoo.⁠[6][5][5]

Smith was a director of Humana from 2022 to 2025. He joined AmazonAmazonAmazon is a publicly traded U.S. technology and retail company founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, with its principal corporate offices in Seattle. Its businesses span e-commerce, logistics and fulfillment, digital advertising, membership and entertainment services, consumer electronics, and Amazon Web Services cloud computing.Open the full entry’s board in 2023, serving on its audit committee, and has been a director of JPMorgan Chase & Co. since 2025, sitting on its Public Responsibility and Risk committees.⁠[6][5][2]

In 2015 Smith and his wife, Alys, gave $10 million to Marshall University to establish a scholarship giving preference to first-generation college students from West Virginia and Ohio. In 2018 they gave a further $25 million to support the College of Business, and the university named its undergraduate and graduate schools of business the Brad D. Smith Schools of Business.⁠[1][7]

In 2016 West Virginia University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Business degree.⁠[5]

In 2018 Smith announced that he would step down as Intuit’s CEO, to be succeeded by Sasan Goodarzi. In an interview with Fortune he said: “I never wanted to be that athlete who loses half a step or can’t complete the pass.”⁠[5]

Smith served as executive chairman of Intuit from January 2019 to January 2022.⁠[6]

In 2019 Smith and his wife, Alys, founded the Wing 2 Wing Foundation to advance education and entrepreneurship in overlooked communities, including West Virginia. The name comes from the couple’s favorite quote: “We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.”⁠[7][1]

The same year, plans for the Brad D. Smith Business Incubator were announced in Huntington, providing space and mentorship for local entrepreneurs and business students.⁠[7]

In 2020 the Smiths gave $25 million to West Virginia University to create the Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative, which in 2021 launched Ascend West Virginia, a program to attract remote workers to the state.⁠[7][1]

After Jerome Gilbert resigned as president of Marshall University in 2021, Smith was one of five finalists for the position; on October 28, 2021, the Board of Governors unanimously chose him as the university’s 38th president.⁠[1][8]

In a speech that day he pledged to bring three mindsets: “Dream bigger, deliver faster and define excellence.”⁠[8]

Smith took office in January 2022 as the first alumnus in Marshall University’s 186-year history to serve as its president, and was formally installed on September 16, 2022. In April that year he received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus award.⁠[3][8]

In June 2023 ForbesForbesForbes is an American business media brand that began with Forbes magazine, founded by B.C. Forbes in 1917. It is known for rankings such as the Forbes 400, the World’s Billionaires list and 30 Under 30, and operates Forbes.com, ForbesLive events and licensed editions in 81 countries. Since 2014 a majority stake has been held by the Hong Kong investment group Integrated Whale Media; a 2021 plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange through a special purpose acquisition company was terminated in 2022. It is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.Open the full entry named Smith the richest person in West Virginia in its list of the richest person in every state, estimating his net worth at about $700 million.⁠[9]

On June 11, 2025, the Marshall University Board of Governors unanimously approved an amendment extending Smith’s employment agreement by three years, to December 31, 2029. He said: “Alys and I consider this role the privilege of a lifetime.”⁠[3]

In 2025 the Smiths gave $50 million to Marshall For All, a program launched in 2023 that combines scholarships, grants, work opportunities and family contributions to help students earn an undergraduate degree debt-free or tuition-free. Their lifetime donations to the university exceed $90 million.⁠[7]

In 2026 Smith and his wife received the Four Chaplains Gold Medallion Award in recognition of their commitment to serving others.⁠[7]

Reflecting on the transition on his website in 2026, he wrote: “Being a CEO can be the job of a lifetime, but it is not the job for a lifetime.” He also wrote that the board had three to four viable successors at the time.⁠[10][11]

Smith also sits on the board of the Marshall Health Network, is a board advisor to DignifiHealth and co-chairs the Southern Regional Education Board’s Commission on AI in Education.⁠[6][1]

He often says: “Talent is dispersed equally, but opportunity is not.”⁠[12]

Intuit named the main office building at its headquarters campus “The Brad D. Smith Building,” displaying his signature phrase, “Work hard. Be kind. Take pride.”⁠[2]

Personal website: https://braddsmith.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

Marshall University: Official website: https://www.marshall.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[4]

X: Public account: https://x.com/marshallupres (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-d-smith/ (opens in a new window).⁠[12]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@brad-d-smith (opens in a new window).⁠[10]