H&R Block Executives
Richard Agar, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Richard Agar is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer leading all strategic technology and operational initiatives that support the retail and digital tax businesses, as well as the H&R Block Bank and other corporate programs. Before joining H&R Block, Agar spent 23 years at General Electric in a variety of executive and operational positions. His diverse background in business operations, Six Sigma and global enterprise technology, have been instrumental in improving quality and operational excellence at H&R Block.Agar’s previous assignments included Global Chief Information Officer of GE Insurance Solutions in Kansas City, Kan.; Global CIO of GE Silicones in Waterford, N.Y.; and Chief Technology Officer of GE Plastics in Pittsfield, Mass.Agar began his technology career in Boston as a technology architect in the banking industry. He graduated from Bentley University in Waltham, Mass., where he earned a degree in accounting. He is active in community service and is a former executive sponsor for United Way.
William C. Cobb, President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Cobb was named President and Chief Executive Officer of H&R Block, Inc. in May 2011. He has been a member of the company’s Board of Directors since August 2010. From 2004 to 2008, Mr. Cobb was President of eBay Marketplaces, the company’s flagship division. Under his leadership, the eBay division traded $25 billion in goods and services, and reached a record $2.6 billion in revenue. In addition to eBay’s U.S. performance, Mr. Cobb was responsible for affiliated businesses such as StubHub, Shopping.com and Rent.com. Mr. Cobb led eBay’s International division from 2002 to 2004, growing revenue from $300 million to more than $1 billion in two years. He started with eBay in 2000 as the head of eBay’s Global Marketing, where he developed the company’s first brand campaign and the largest internet marketing function on the web.
From 1987 until 2000, Mr. Cobb held several senior-level positions at Pepsico and YUM! Brands, including Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of International Marketing for YUM!, and Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Pizza Hut U.S.
Mr. Cobb holds a B.S. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management.
Mr. Cobb and his wife, Carole, have three children.
Susan Ehrlich, President of Financial Services
Susan Ehrlich is President of H&R Block Financial Services, which provides financial solutions to the unbanked and underbanked. In this role, Ehrlich leads the development and execution of the company’s product offerings and financial services strategy, utilizing the H&R Block Bank, to create even stronger relationships with new and existing clients. In addition to building on the success of H&R Block’s Emerald suite of products, Ehrlich also leads the company’s plans to expand new initiatives such as Money Express and Emerald Card mobile.
Before joining H&R Block, Ehrlich held key leadership roles to develop and deliver payment and credit solutions for JP Morgan Chase, Sears Financial Services and WaMu Card Services (Providian Financial), and Citibank.
Ehrlich has been recognized the past three years by “American Banker” magazine as one of the 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance. She serves on the board of the Center for Financial Services Innovation, the nation’s leading authority on financial services for underbanked consumers. Ehrlich also was appointed to the Consumer Advisory Council, which advised the Federal Reserve Board on matters related to the Consumer Credit Protection Act and consumer financial services, and completed its role in June 2011.
Ehrlich holds a B.A. with honors in organizational behavior and management from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School. She is an avid golfer and wine enthusiast and helped found the Bruce Cass Wine Lab wine education programs in the San Francisco Bay area.
Tom Gerke, Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Tom Gerke is Senior Vice President and General Counsel of H&R Block, providing leadership for the company’s legal function.
Gerke brings years of executive and legal experience to the company, including recent roles in telecom as Executive Vice Chairman for CenturyLink, President and Chief Executive Officer of Embarq, and General Counsel for Embarq with additional responsibilities for its Wholesale Markets business unit. Starting in 1994, he served in various leadership and legal roles at Sprint, including Executive Vice President, Law and External Affairs. Prior to Sprint, Gerke spent nine years in private practice focused primarily on strategic corporate transactions. In addition to telecom and private practice, Gerke served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for YRC Worldwide.
Gerke serves on several local boards, including Rockhurst University, and the Kansas City Local Investment Commission. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri in Columbia, his MBA from Rockhurst University, and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Missouri School of Law in Kansas City.
Jason Houseworth, President, U.S. Tax Services
Jason Houseworth is President of U.S Tax Services responsible for the strategy, planning and development of all forms of U.S. tax services.
Previously, Houseworth was Senior Vice President, Digital Tax Solutions, responsible for the product and technology strategy of H&R Block at HomeTM online and software solutions. In that role, he led the company’s digital tax operations to cumulative client growth of 26 percent and an estimated 150 basis points of cumulative share gains in the digital online category. He is credited with founding the company’s Client Innovation Lab, which is designed to accelerate growth of H&R Block’s digital products through strategic partnerships and technology enhancements.
Before joining H&R Block in 2008 as Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Houseworth was Senior Vice President and Global Claims IT Leader at Swiss Re (formerly GE Insurance Solutions), where he helped integrate the global technical accounting and claims systems into a single consolidated platform. Prior to that, Houseworth spent much of his career in consulting on Health and Human Services implementations for Accenture.
Houseworth is on the Board of Directors for Yodlee, a B2B data aggregation solution provider. In 2012, he was listed in Kansas City’s 40 Under Forty by Ingram’s magazine. He graduated from William Jewell College in Liberty, MO, and spent a year at Oxford University. He is a former member of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions program and serves on the Board of Directors for Ozanam.
Houseworth and his wife, Beth, have three children.
Kip Knight. President, H&R Block International
Kip Knight is the President of H&R Block International, with offices in Canada, Australia, India and Brazil. His 30-year career includes senior management and marketing positions with P&G, PepsiCo and eBay.
Kip started in marketing research at Burke Marketing Research and has since worked in over 65 countries. He spent 10 years in brand management at Procter and Gamble.
He worked for 10 years in PepsiCo’s international restaurant division where served as General Manager of North Latin America and the first head of marketing for KFC International. Kip also served as Chief Marketing Officer for Taco Bell.
From 2002 until 2008, Kip worked at eBay, the world’s largest e-commerce site. He was Vice-President of marketing for eBay, North America. He was also responsible for managing eBay Canada, the leading e-commerce site in Canada. He was the first head of International Marketing and served as Regional Vice President for eBay International for Latin America, Australia and Taiwan.
Kip is currently on the Board of Directors at Netbase and Quiznos. He also is a Venture Partner with Thomvest Ventures based in Silicon Valley. Kip is the founder of the U.S. Marketing Communication College at the U.S. State Department that trains diplomats on marketing strategy and implementation.
He earned his B.S. degree from Louisiana State University in marketing and his MBA from the University of Cincinnati.
Greg Macfarlane, Chief Financial Officer.
Greg Macfarlane is H&R Block’s Chief Financial Officer. He joined the company in June 2012.
Prior to joining H&R Block, Macfarlane was Executive Vice President and CFO for Ceridian Corporation. He also spent more than 14 years in senior leadership roles at General Electric Company, including Senior Vice President and CFO for WMC Mortgage, GE Money, Senior Vice President and CFO at GE Partnership Marketing Group, and Vice President and CFO of GE Fleet Services in Japan. Macfarlane was a member of GE’s financial management program and its Corporate Audit Staff.
Macfarlane earned his undergraduate degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Amy McAnarney, President of Retail Client Services
Amy McAnarney is President of Retail Client Services, responsible for driving service delivery of tax and financial services to the company’s 14.9 million U.S. retail clients throughout its nationwide network of more than 10,000 company-owned and franchise offices.
Previously, McAnarney served as Senior Vice President of Operations Support and Franchise Development, where she was responsible for strategy deployment, client experience development, operations support, and the strategy and development of the company’s franchisee network. She has held numerous executive positions since joining H&R Block in 1997, including Vice President of Finance, Vice President of Tax Strategy and Development, Regional Director and other roles in financial management, performance management and information technology.
McAnarney founded The Tax Institute at H&R Block, which quickly developed into a leading source for objective insights into tax law, policy and research. Before joining H&R Block, her work experience included various industry controllerships and several years at Deloitte & Touche.
McAnarney has served on many professional, academic and civic boards. Currently her service includes the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, Starlight Theater and the Women’s Intersport Network in Kansas City boards. Her past honors include Kansas City’s Rising Philanthropic Star in 2012, Kansas City Women Who Mean Business in 2011, an Influential Woman of 2008 and Kansas City’s “40 Under 40” in 2004. She also is a former city councilwoman and treasurer in suburban Kansas City.
McAnarney graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in accounting from Kansas State University. She resides in Kansas City, Mo., with her husband David and children, Graham and Abby.
Kushagra Saxena, Chief Strategy Officer
Kush Saxena is H&R Block’s Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, Saxena will work with the senior leadership team on the company’s strategic growth efforts.
Saxena joins H&R Block from McKinsey & Co., Inc., where he has served multiple Fortune 500 companies in high-tech, financial services, retail and healthcare sectors on a wide range of issues ranging from growth strategy, new product strategy, market-entry strategy and M&A/business development activities. Prior to McKinsey, Saxena held research roles at various organizations, including Stanford University, Fair Isaac Corporation and National Aerospace Labs in India. Saxena also co-founded one of India’s first dot com start ups focused on the small-to-middle sized business market in 1998.
Saxena has a master’s degree in management science and engineering from Stanford University, and an undergraduate degree in computer science from Gujarat University in India.
Robert Turtledove, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
In his role as Chief Marketing Officer of H&R Block, Robert leads the brand, marketing, client acquisition and growth, research and field marketing strategies and initiatives for all of the H&R Block business units, including Retail, Digital, Financial Services and International. He joined H&R Block in late 2009.
Mr. Turtledove is a seasoned marketing executive with more than 25 years of consumer, brand, retail, digital and international marketing experience. He has worked for and marketed some of the world’s most iconic brands, such as Pepsi, Pizza Hut, Frito Lay and Unilever. His experience also includes marketing leadership roles at digital/on-line companies, recently as CMO of TheLadders.com, the world’s leading $100k+ job search service, and senior marketing roles in global restaurant companies, including Chief Concept & Marketing Officer at Metromedia Restaurants, VP Marketing for Pizza Hut International, and VP marketing for Product and Menu Development at Pizza Hut USA. He also has strong agency credentials, having worked for brands including Mountain Dew, Aquafina, Pepsi Cola, Lay’s and Tostitos. His career in brand management began at Lever Brothers in South Africa.
Born and raised in Zimbabwe, Turtledove received his Bachelor of Business Science degree from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, with honors in Marketing, Economics and Business Policy.
Aileen Wilkins, Chief People Officer
Aileen Wilkins is the Chief People Officer for H&R Block. In this role, Aileen will lead our people strategies including workforce planning, talent management, organizational capabilities and culture.
Before joining H&R Block in 2007, she served in a variety of human resources roles for a several companies, including Eli Lilly & Company, NetSales, Gateway, Inc., and Informix Software in Kansas City. Since joining H&R Block five years ago, she has worked closely with the company’s retail business as well as the functional leaders and teams.
Wilkins has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
