Ward joined Intuit in 2001 as the VP and general manager of the company's QuickBook operations. In May, Ward, then SVP of the Accounting Professionals Division, added global responsibilities during a major company reorganization. Her move leaves Intuit without two of its best-known players in the CPA community. Last month, Rich Walker retired after 15 years with the company. Walker was most recently involved in developing programs for accountants globally. But for many years, Walker was Intuit's face at tax and accounting conferences.

McGinnis has been responsible for the ProAdvisor Program worldwide, the Intuit Accountant Advisory Council what Ward's letter termed "many of our efforts in professional tax and accounting. His extensive global, general management and marketing experience will be invaluable in the next chapter of our collective journey to the cloud, around the world."

Before joining Intuit, McGinnis was a VP at game maker Activision from March 2008 through October 2010. He has a strong consumer background as he was at Proctor & Gamble from September 1992 through December 2002. He then was with PepsiCo units from January 2003 through March 2008. One element of McGinnis career that appears extremely pertinent is his international experience at a time when Intuit is emphasizing global operations.

While with P&G, he led the introduction of Tide detergent in China and he was later marketing director for P&G's Argentinean operations. With Pepsico, he was with that company's Smiths Snackfood Australia