Senior Vice President, Intuit

Combining humor and personal experience, Nora Denzel will share what she learned as she climbed the corporate ladder at IBM and Hewlett Packard, emphasizing the 10 most common mistakes people make as they try to advance their careers—and how to avoid them.

Denzel is senior vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Payroll Business. In this role, she leads one of the software company’s fastest-growing business units, focusing on delivering easy-to-use payroll services for small businesses. Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, Intuit is a leading provider of business and financial management solutions. Its traditional flagship products include Quicken, QuickBooks and TurboTax. Intuit has 8,000 employees, $2.6 billion in annual revenue, and has been recognized as America’s most-admired software company and one of the country’s best places to work.

Before joining Intuit, Denzel was senior vice president of Hewlett-Packard’s global software business, where she led the division to double-digit growth. Previously, Denzel served as senior vice president of product operations at Legato Systems Inc., now a division of EMC. She began her career as an engineer at IBM and advanced quickly during her 13-year tenure, becoming one of IBM’s youngest executives at the age of 33.

Denzel earned her bachelor’s degree in computer science from State University of New York and her MBA from Santa Clara University. She serves on the board of directors for Overland Inc., the Support Network and the Anita Borg Institute.