Luis Sanchez, who has been Director of the Worldwide QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program for the last 3-1/2 years, is stepping into a new role with Intuit. Chris Hamilton will be replacing him as Director.
In a phone conversation this morning Luis told me that he would be moving into a role of leading marketing of QuickBooks to Accountants as part of Intuit's Small Business Team, and that he was excited about the change and new challenge while at the same time somewhat conflicted about leaving his many friends within the ProAdvisor community. Luis has overseen a number of major changes in the ProAdvisor program during his tenure, including the adoption of the 'Cloud ProAdvisor' Program focusing on QuickBooks Online. He also had a major role in the QuickBooks Online Accountant integration with the ProAdvisor website.
Luis has also revamped many of the issues that plagued the program including information access and global communications so as to open the channels whereby ProAdvisors obtain information. He also opened up the 'Find a ProAdvisor' listings to QBO users, something greatly needed. As a result the number of ProAdvisors worldwide has more than doubled during his tenure.
I will mention here that Luis and his entire ProAdvisor team have been extremely supportive and helpful in our implementation of the ProAdvisor of the Year program, in many ways we could not have done it without them.
From a personal standpoint I can say that "I could always pick-up the phone or send him an email and have an almost immediate response." He always had a 'open ear' and was willing to listen to my viewpoint or the views of our readers.
I personally want to extend my 'best wishes' to Luis as he moves into his new position. I am certain he will bring to that role the excitement and enthusiasm with which he hit the ProAdvisor road running just those few years ago.
Chris Hamilton, who has been working with the QuickBooks Online team will step into the role as chief of the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program. Best of luck Chris in your new role, you have some really big shoes to fill.