The current president of Marshall University is Brad D. Smith. He was named to the position in January 2022 and was invested during a ceremony in September of the same year.
As a proud West Virginian with a passion for leadership and philanthropy, Brad D. Smith is focused on helping facilitate change by developing, supporting and investing in people.
His devotion to giving back to his home state runs deep, and he is committed to providing educational and economic development resources to the Appalachian region, where many communities have been disproportionately affected by technological and economic change.
During Brad’s 11-year tenure as CEO of Intuit, he was able to transform the company’s business structure from a North American desktop software company to a global cloud-based platform with a portfolio that included TurboTax, QuickBooks and Mint. The transformation was born from an innovation culture built around data-driven decision-making and rapid experimentation. The drive to innovate across all layers of the company transformed the way Intuit was able to serve its consumers, small businesses and partners. This led to record growth that nearly doubled the company’s revenues and increased its stock price more than 500%, and positioned Intuit as the industry leader.
Under his leadership, the company consistently was recognized as one of the world’s best places to work. Intuit placed on the Fortune Best Companies to Work For list each year during his tenure, ranking #13 in the United States and #1 in India, Singapore and Canada in 2017.
In 2016, Brad was ranked among the top CEOs in the United States by Fortune magazine, coming in at #6 on their list.
Before his time at Intuit, Brad’s career spanned four industries, including stints at PepsiCo, 7-UP, ADVO and ADP, where he led large, global organizations through turn-around, transformation and high-growth environments.
He has served as the executive chairman of the board of Intuit, as chairman of the Nordstrom board and as a board member of Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey) and Yahoo. He was recently appointed to the board of directors at Humana.
Brad’s Wing 2 Wing Foundation, which he co-founded with his wife Alys, provides increased access and support for education, entrepreneurship mentoring and investment and works to position West Virginia “as a showcase for the nation.” One of the foundation’s signature initiatives is Ascend West Virginia, the nation’s premier remote workforce recruitment program.
Originally from Kenova, Brad earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marshall University and his master’s degree in management from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Brad and Alys are the parents of two grown daughters, Payton Smith and Devon Smith Heyn.
