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Pepsi or The Herald-Dispatch? This was the question Marshall University alumnus Brad D. Smith faced upon graduation in 1986. While Smith studied business administration focusing in marketing, he had always dreamed of being a journalist or a marine biologist.

Two clients of the Brad D. Smith Business Incubator are winners of the Small Businessperson(s) of the year, as named by the U.S. Small Business Administration for 2020.

If you haven’t heard of Brad Smith by now, then you haven’t been following the news. The Kenova native and Marshall University grad rose to prominence a little over 10 years ago when, at the age of just 43, he was named CEO of software giant Intuit.

Helping small businesses take the next step is what the recently opened Marshall University Brad D. Smith Business Incubator is doing. The business incubator, housed in the Visual Arts Center in the 900 block of 3rd Avenue in downtown Huntington, assists entrepreneurs and business professionals get their ideas and business models off the ground.

Marshall University alumnus Brad Smith is one of 25 business school graduates honored by AACSB International – the world’s largest business education alliance—as a member of the 2020 Class of Influential Leaders. The annual challenge recognizes notable alumni from AACSB-accredited schools whose inspiring work serves as a model for the next generation of business leaders.

Brad D. Smith, former president and CEO of Intuit who is now executive chairman of the company’s board of directors, joined guest panelists Shantanu Narayen, chairman and CEO of Adobe, and Daniel Schulman, president and CEO of PayPal, onstage for the Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series for the inaugural “CEO Panel.”

The Marshall University Brad D. Smith Business Incubator in downtown Huntington is open and ready for business under the direction of two new co-directors who will help entrepreneurs and new businesses develop ideas and business models.

Marshall University’s Lewis College of Business and its Brad D. Smith Schools of Business will host the inaugural CEO panel of the Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series at 3 p.m. Feb. 19 in Huntington’s historic Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center on 4th Avenue.

In 2016, the first line of a Fortune article asked, “Why isn’t Intuit dead?” The short answer is because Intuit serially disrupts itself. It’s a practice that only a handful of tech companies, including Amazon and Netflix, inflict upon themselves regularly—and have the skill to do well.

As the Lewis College of Business and Brad D. Smith Schools of Business celebrate 50 years of the college this week, Marshall University welcomes the addition of a new business incubator space.