TurboTax Parent Intuit Names New Finance Chief--Update

By Tatyana Shumsky and Ezequiel Minaya 

Intuit Inc., the maker of TurboTax and QuickBooks, said Tuesday that Chief Financial Officer R. Neil Williams will step down from his post next year after spending nearly 10 years with the company.

He will be replaced by Michelle Clatterbuck, a senior finance executive at Intuit.

Mr. Williams is slated to step down in January, with Ms. Clatterbuck taking the reins Feb. 1.

She is currently senior vice president of finance for Intuit's consumer tax group and acting finance leader for the company's small business group. She joined Intuit in 2003 from General Electric Co., according to her LinkedIn profile. Compensation details weren't immediately available.

Mr. Williams joined Intuit in 2008 after serving as CFO at Visa USA Inc., a subsidiary of Visa Inc., according to Intuit's website.

"Neil has decided to step away and embark on a new chapter, freeing him up from full-time employment to pursue other personal goals," Brad Smith, Intuit's chief executive, said in a statement.

During his time at Intuit, Mr. Williams "built a deep bench of strong financial leaders," Mr. Smith added. Just last month, Ned Segal, the company's senior vice president of finance for the $2.5 billion division that delivers QuickBooks to customers, was named CFO of Twitter Inc.

As for Ms. Clatterbuck, Mr. Williams said, "she's ready for the role."

"I'm leaving Michelle with a very good team, but this is another place where she will put her own stamp on things," Mr. Williams said in an interview with CFO Journal Tuesday.

And he is ready to move on.

"It's time...I'll be 65 in January and I've got a bunch of other things I want to do," he added. "It's been the best job of my career but I'm about three years past the normal shelf-life of a public company CFO."

The average age of sitting CFOs is 52, according to the Crist|Kolder 2017 Volatility Report, which measures various demographics across the C-suite. Less than 10% of finance chiefs are over age 60. Mr. Williams's time at Intuit also exceeds the average tenure of finance chiefs in the S&P and Fortune 500 -- at 4.9 years -- according to Crist|Kolder. The average tenure of technology CFOs is 4.5 years.

Mr. Williams said he plans to participate on boards and spend time with immediate and extended family. "I'm not going to do anything else full-time," he said. He is currently on the boards of software solutions company RingCentral Inc. and renewable products company Amyris Inc.

For its latest quarter, the company posted adjusted earnings on a per-share basis of 20 cents, better than the 17 cents expected by analysts cited by Thomson Reuters. Revenue for the period rose 11.7% to $842 million, better than the $804.6 million expected by analysts.

A repeat of strong financial performance next year could be a potential challenge for Ms. Clatterbuck as she takes over the reins, Mr. Williams said. Ms. Clatterbuck also will need to spend more time getting to know the investors and analysts that cover Intuit.

"She's not an unknown entity by any means," Mr. Williams said. "But clearly there's opportunity to spend more time for people to get to know her better and her views and opinions without me sitting in the chair next to her," he said.

Write to Tatyana Shumsky at [e-mail] and Ezequiel Minaya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 22, 2017 19:03 ET (23:03 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.