Tom Allanson is the Chief Executive Officer of Perfect Forms, Inc. Tom has over twenty years experience in the software and software related industries including key executive roles at Intuit, General Electric, and H&R Block. Tom was the President of a General Electric financing company. He was the Senior Vice President and General Manager at Intuit in charge of the TurboTax Division. He was, most recently, the President of H&R Block Digital Tax Division. He also has entrepreneurial experience, founding, financing and successfully selling an online tax software business.
Tom has over 19 years of experience leading teams and growing businesses. He started his professional career as a design engineer then spent time developing skills in sales, marketing and general management. The experiences and expertise he developed in engineering make him a solid problem solver. The experiences and insight he developed in sales and marketing provide him with the ability to identify and execute on opportunities for growth. The general management experience, training and continuous learning make him the visionary leader that can lead people to achieve new levels of performance.
His first major General Manager position, in 1998, was as the President of a GE Capital Vendor Financial Services business. Tom oversaw the acquisition, development and management of a multibillion dollar portfolio of small ticket leases. His job as President included the leadership of 310 people located in three different locations. This also included the development of a complex online credit scoring and auto documentation system.
From there Tom became the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Intuit Tax Division which included TurboTax, the top selling software product in the country. He was responsible for strategic development, operational excellence and developing the team. Tom brought six sigma process improvements and focus on customer centered design and marketing programs. He developed a solid understanding of Internet growth opportunities and SaaS, growing TurboTax sales by 100% in just a few years and increasing the margin percent by over 30%.
Tom left Intuit with a dream of starting a company to better serve taxpayer needs. He developed a strategy for creating a new tax preparation category that would blend digital capabilities with tax professionals without having to have a physical meeting. He launched this new online tax experience and served over 100,000 customers in the first three months of the product launch. He sold this company to H&R Block in 2005.
Tom then became President of the Digital Tax Division of H&R Block. In additional to serving over 5MM United States users he was also responsible for establishing international businesses in Canada and Australia.
Tom has over 19 years of experience leading teams and growing businesses. He started his professional career as a design engineer then spent time developing skills in sales, marketing and general management. The experiences and expertise he developed in engineering make him a solid problem solver. The experiences and insight he developed in sales and marketing provide him with the ability to identify and execute on opportunities for growth. The general management experience, training and continuous learning make him the visionary leader that can lead people to achieve new levels of performance.
His first major General Manager position, in 1998, was as the President of a GE Capital Vendor Financial Services business. Tom oversaw the acquisition, development and management of a multibillion dollar portfolio of small ticket leases. His job as President included the leadership of 310 people located in three different locations. This also included the development of a complex online credit scoring and auto documentation system.
From there Tom became the Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Intuit Tax Division which included TurboTax, the top selling software product in the country. He was responsible for strategic development, operational excellence and developing the team. Tom brought six sigma process improvements and focus on customer centered design and marketing programs. He developed a solid understanding of Internet growth opportunities and SaaS, growing TurboTax sales by 100% in just a few years and increasing the margin percent by over 30%.
Tom left Intuit with a dream of starting a company to better serve taxpayer needs. He developed a strategy for creating a new tax preparation category that would blend digital capabilities with tax professionals without having to have a physical meeting. He launched this new online tax experience and served over 100,000 customers in the first three months of the product launch. He sold this company to H&R Block in 2005.
Tom then became President of the Digital Tax Division of H&R Block. In additional to serving over 5MM United States users he was also responsible for establishing international businesses in Canada and Australia.
Aaron has over 25 years of operations and quality experience.
He was part of the original team that launched General Electric's Six Sigma program in 1995. While in charge of quality for Large Steam Turbines, he used six sigma techniques to drive a 92% reduction in defect rate, reduced customer complaint costs by 51% and assembly cycle by 72%, achieving certification as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He led the day-to-day operations for a General Electric's Trade Payables business, responsible for over 35,000 transactions per day or $16.7 billion in annual fundings, through significant efforts improving financial controllership, Y2K readiness and transitioning to a global model.
He led Intuit's Tax Division Process Excellence strategy, implementing business measurements, training programs, project selection and execution mechanisms. He personally mentored business leaders and teams in problem solving, statistical analysis, process design and change facilitation. He drove significant insight on customer needs and performance issues that led to over $1.2 Million in revenue benefit.
Aaron has a B.S. in Materials Engineering and a M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering. He is also a Certified Quality Engineer through ASQ. He currently teaches online courses in Six Sigma for the University of California San Diego.
He was part of the original team that launched General Electric's Six Sigma program in 1995. While in charge of quality for Large Steam Turbines, he used six sigma techniques to drive a 92% reduction in defect rate, reduced customer complaint costs by 51% and assembly cycle by 72%, achieving certification as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. He led the day-to-day operations for a General Electric's Trade Payables business, responsible for over 35,000 transactions per day or $16.7 billion in annual fundings, through significant efforts improving financial controllership, Y2K readiness and transitioning to a global model.
He led Intuit's Tax Division Process Excellence strategy, implementing business measurements, training programs, project selection and execution mechanisms. He personally mentored business leaders and teams in problem solving, statistical analysis, process design and change facilitation. He drove significant insight on customer needs and performance issues that led to over $1.2 Million in revenue benefit.
Aaron has a B.S. in Materials Engineering and a M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering. He is also a Certified Quality Engineer through ASQ. He currently teaches online courses in Six Sigma for the University of California San Diego.
Paula Selvidge - Vice President of Products and User Experience
Paula Selvidge has extensive experience creating business solutions and designing software interfaces to meet customer needs. She offers a blend of academic accomplishment, a Ph.D. in Human Factors Psychology, and industry credentials, Six Sigma Black Belt, which contributes to a keen understanding of the factors that define business success. This unique background is complemented by a proven ability to identify key organizational issues and devise an actionable strategy to ensure measurable results.In her role as a consultant for human factors and Six Sigma projects, Paula contracted with Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders, such as Microsoft, IBM, NCR, Dell, and Akamai Technologies. She led client efforts for user-interface design, usability evaluations, and process improvement projects.
At DST Systems, she managed a team of human factors professionals responsible for all aspects of the user-experience for the world's largest shareholder recordkeeping system, supporting approximately 120 million mutual fund accounts. This team was responsible for interface design and usability testing for mutual fund and retirement systems that averaged 1 million transactions a day. At H&R Block, she implemented a cross-organizational content strategy targeting tool consolidation, a shared content model and a new content creation process for all tax related content. This effort realized $1.3M in savings and reduced the tax content pool by 40%.