Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) announced today that its board of directors has selected Stephen M. Bennett as president and chief executive officer. Bennett assumes his responsibilities immediately, succeeding Bill Campbell, who had been acting chief executive since September. Campbell is retiring from day-to-day responsibilities but will remain chairman of the board of directors. Bennett was also named to the board.
Bennett, 45, was most recently an executive vice president and member of the Office of the CEO at GE Capital, the financial services subsidiary of General Electric Corp. GE Capital is the world leader in numerous financial industries, including private label credit cards, commercial equipment leasing and vendor finance. With $330 billion in assets, GE Capital provides 42% of General Electric's overall profits and is among the world's largest non-banking financial institutions.
"Steve is an outstanding leader from a company renowned for strong leadership," said Campbell. "His experience is tailor-made to fit Intuit's needs now and in the future. We wanted someone with service industry knowledge, who had led large, complex organizations and with proven ability to produce fast growth. Steve is the ideal choice to take Intuit to the multi-billion dollar level."
"Intuit is the leader in e-finance. Quicken.com is already the leader in online tax preparation and online mortgage origination," said Bennett, who will relocate from Connecticut to the Bay Area. "I'm excited to have the opportunity to continue developing services for the Internet and take Intuit's industry leadership to new heights."
During his GE career, Bennett held significant leadership positions in six different businesses within the company, spanning both manufacturing and financial services. In his most recent position, he oversaw a portfolio of five different companies whose more than 20,000 employees last year generated $15 billion in annual volume. Prior to that, as president and CEO of GE Capital e-Business, he pioneered the company's efforts to leverage the Internet across GE Capital's worldwide portfolio of businesses.
Previously he delivered significant growth as the president and CEO of GE Capital's more than 4,000-employee Vendor Financial Services business. Under his leadership, assets grew to more than $13 billion from $5 billion and net income increased to $200 million from $80 million in four years.
Intuit board member John Doerr said he was impressed by Bennett's broad base of experience. "Steve knows business-to-business as well as business-to-consumer. He knows service businesses. And he gets the Net. Intuit's product leadership and Steve's ability to grow businesses are an ideal match for our future."
Bennett added, "Intuit's management team is strong, stable and experienced and works well together," he said. "This is one of the few management teams to successfully and rapidly transform a company to the Net. I'm glad to have the opportunity to lead Intuit's continued growth and expansion."
Scott Cook, Intuit founder and chairman of its executive committee, said, "Steve shares Intuit's values. He's a straightforward, no-nonsense, results-driven executive who cares deeply about people. His values-oriented leadership style energizes organizations to great achievement, and I look forward to working with him."
