Dr. Smith’s CV
Board of Directors and Advisory Board Service / CEO / Executive Coaching
Dr. Smith is an entrepreneur, seasoned senior executive, political and social theorist, published author and speaker. He is a veteran of Wall Street and has founded and managed two non-profit and six for-profit companies. Those companies have ranged from a NASDAQ Broker Dealer in which he was a principal to a company that revolutionized the financing structure of the US film industry.
Throughout his career, Dr. Smith has demonstrated a capability for managing change in both start-up and mature environments. He is skilled at restructuring organizations. An effective communicator, he is proficient at crafting and delivering persuasive messages. Earl has consistently demonstrated leadership skills by developing and mentoring strong professional teams. Dr. Smith is experienced at building and maintaining strong alliances and strategic partnerships.
An effective leader and innovator, Dr. Smith blends academic research with hands-on management expertise. He has a record of successful innovation in a variety of industries including technology transfer, film financing, property investment and management, team building and leadership, board design/population and management, management/team/board assessment and executive/leadership/team coaching.
Dr. Smith has managed multi-million dollar budgets and staffs up to three hundred. He has served on seven Boards of Directors and three Advisory Boards.
Career Highlights
Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Smith designed and implemented a revolutionary approach to financing films for the major US studios. Strategic partners in the process, in addition to Columbia Pictures, Paramount and Warner Brothers, were money the center banks in New York City, major accounting and consulting firms, entertainment and taxation law firms and major Wall Street investment banking houses.
As a direct result of this new approach, the studios were able to make 1/3 more movies, the banks were able to spread their lending risk over more films, private investors took the top 25% of the risk column in return for a combination of tax and economic benefits and the accounting firms and investment banking houses had a new source of attractive investment opportunities for their major clients.
Dr. Smith founded a NASDAQ broker/dealer which provided private investment opportunities to major clients of the big accounting firms and frontline Wall Street investment banking houses. Its clients included Touche Ross, Ernst & Whinney, Price Waterhouse, Peat Marwick Mitchell, Bache Securities, Merrill Lynch Pierce Fenner & Smith and Paine Webber Jackson & Curtis.
Epoche’ Securities managed offerings in the form of partnership interests with a minimum individual investment of $ 150,000. Dr. Smith established the operating protocols to manage this process from the structuring of the investment, producing the required documentation to the placement of the securities, settlement through the ongoing management of the investment partnerships. Over its history, Epoche’ managed over fifteen million dollars in private placements.
Dr. Smith coordinated relationships with the appropriate regulatory agencies including the SEC and IRS. Epoche’ Securities never had either a regulatory or tax issue arise with any of the investment packages that it organized, marketed and managed. The Company maintained a spotless record within a complex regulatory environment.
As Executive Director of Longview, Dr. Smith coached over two dozen CEOs and senior team members and acted as a strategic advisor to numerous senior management teams. He enjoys helping others apply the lessons he has learned. Earl brings a combination of insight and candor to his engagements. His wealth of experience guiding management and leadership teams and boards allows him to get to the heart of matters quickly, help clients work through issues, and get the most out of their organizations.
Dr. Smith has been involved in published writing for more than two decades. While in Scotland, Dr. Smith had scholarly papers published by Strathclyde University Press. Since returning to the States, he has authored a regular column for a newsletter and a series of columns focusing on management issues and life coaching. His writings are currently in syndication on at least a dozen major websites. He is also the author of Amazing Pace: Turbo-Charged Business Development.
Highlights of Professional Experience
Strategic Advisory
Dr. Smith provides strategic advisory services in the areas of business development of business, turn-around plans, strategic planning, team development and augmentation, merger and acquisition strategies, and leadership and management style. Through his network of strategic partnerships and associations, he has brought together tailor-made teams to advise clients on a wide range of complex issues.
Chairman, Advisory Board, Ordia Solutions
Ordia provides a Mobile Tactical Collaboration System™ – which is the only product on the market that integrates incident management, collaboration, and blue force tracking into one easy-to-use, ready-out-of-the-box solution.
Strategic Advisor, CSNW
CNS LLC is a Virginia based System Engineering Services firm focused on the research, design, integration, and implementation of Information Technology (IT), Software Systems, Database Architectures, and Interactive Multi-media Instruction (IMI) for the Federal Government, Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and Commercial customers.
Strategic Advisor, White Glove Restaurant Services
White Glove Restaurant Services provides kitchen hood and range cleaning services to commercial kitchens throughout the Washington DC, Maryland.
Chairman, Advisory Board, Metro Capital
Metro Capital offers the highest quality of financial services as Balance Sheet Surgeons. Crafting settlements – and infusing cash – since 1994, they have put many millions of $’s back into it clients’ accounts – and saved hundreds of companies from Bankruptcy!
Volunteer, Washington Ear:
Hosted a weekly radio show drawing from articles from the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal.
Member, Board of Directors, Board Bench:
Board Bench focuses on improving board performance through a series of proprietary tools including assessment, gap-analysis and succession planning. Board Bench provides a detailed analysis a company’s board – an analysis which serves as a basis for a strategic plan for its augmentation and development. The company then provides support in implementing and monitoring that plan.
Executive Director, Longview
Longview provides strategic advisory services in the areas of business development of business, turn-around plans, strategic planning, team development and augmentation, merger and acquisition strategies, and leadership and management style.
Through his network of strategic partnerships and associations, Dr. Smith has brought together tailor-made teams to advise clients on a wide range of complex issues. These teams have rendered advisory services to clients such as Lockheed Martin, Tetra Tech, Tenix Datagate, Gerson Lehrman Group and Maxim Systems.
Member, Board of Directors, Institute of Management Consultants (IMC)
IMC USA is the premier professional association and certifying body for management consultants. Dr. Smith was elected to the Board to help the current management reverse a downward trend in IMC fortunes. IMC has restructured its budget, repaid an accumulated deficit, launched an Academy which is formalizing the award and maintenance of its CMC certification program and adopted best practices in IMC management. IMC is now stabilized and its future is much brighter.
Advisory Board Member, Subsystems Technology
Subsystems Technology is an emerging business which provides World Class Information Technology solutions for a broad base of Government and Industry Clients. Dr. Smith served as advisor to the company’s President and assisted in a reorganization and refocus on the company’s service offerings.
Advisory Board Member, Conquest Systems
Dr. Smith designed, built and served on an Advisory Board for the CEO. The Board included a past Postmaster General, a retired four-star air force general, a past Assistant Secretary of Defense and an international partner from a major law firm.
Executive Director, Nautical Options
Dr. Smith founded and manages Nautical Options – a company which arranges venues for events onboard commercial cruise ships. The company has organized over twenty five events including all-hands retreats for as many as three hundred participants, board meetings, strategic planning retreats, reunions and seminar programs. Dr. Smith has supervised the organization and management of the events and served many times as a social host. In each case, the company handled all arrangements including travel, meeting facilities and special events.
Senior Research Fellow, University of Birmingham, England and Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS), Strathclyde University, Scotland
Dr. Smith conducted research and taught advanced political and social theory to graduate students and faculty. His research was focused on developing an alternative to comparative cultural analysis. He lectured on topics that ranged from the importance of American neo-pragmatists such as Richard Rorty, the works of post-modernist European thinkers like Baumann, Foucault, Levi-Strauss, Derrida, Baudrillard and Lyotard, the writings of American transcendentalists such as Emerson, the theories of communitarian thinkers such as Amati Etzioni and the importance of Thomas Paine in the American Revolution.
As a result of his work and teaching, Dr. Smith was awarded an Honorary Research Doctorate of Philosophy by the Department of Government and Sociology at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland.
Founder and Senior Partner, Smith Malamed Associates
Smith Malamed Associates financed and co-produced feature length films for Columbia Pictures, Paramount Studios and Warner Brothers. These major productions had production budgets in excess of forty million dollars each, involved major stars such as Charles Bronson, Sean Connery, Audrey Hepburn, Stockard Channing, Jacqueline Bisset and John Housman. The movies have produced box office revenues well in excess of one hundred million dollars.
Founder/CEO, Noema Management Group
Noema Management provided management services for investment partnerships. The company managed investor communications and relations with a wide range of wealthy individuals and companies.
Noema provided a full range of investment management services for a portfolio in excess of one hundred and fifty million dollars. Its services included investor communications, preparation and presentation of reports, maintenance of financial records, arranging for preparation and filing of tax returns and other reports and responding to investor questions and needs.
Founder/CEO, Smith Hotel Associates
Smith Hotel Associates acquired, refurbished, managed hotel properties in Ohio and Georgia. The company negotiated purchase agreements, arranged acquisition financing, managed the senior on-site staffs, designed and implemented renovation projects, negotiated franchise arrangements, organized and deployed re-branding and marketing programs and then re-sold the properties.
Dr. Smith was responsible for overseeing all phases of the operations. He played a principal role in purchase and sale negotiations, design of renovation projects and selection and oversight of senior management team members.
Smith Hotel Associates had average annual gross revenues in excess of ten million dollars with a staff of over two hundred and a portfolio value in excess of fifty five million dollars.
Principal and Managing Director, Epoche’ Securities, Inc
Dr. Smith founded and served as a principal of a fully licensed NASDAQ brokerage/dealer which placed over fifteen million dollars of investment securities involving portfolios valued at $150,000,000. The securities were placed through major Wall Street investment banking houses, law firms and accounting firms and investment advisors.
In his role as principal, he was responsible for regulatory compliance as well as record keeping and reporting. He took the lead in structuring investment packages, the filings required and coordination of the placement of the securities.
Founder & Managing Partner Smith, Hood & Associates
The Company acquired, refurbished, managed and re-sold multi-family residential properties totaling over 1,100 residential units with a combined purchase price in excess of fifty seven million dollars.
Assistant Vice President, Paine, Weber, Jackson & Curtis
Dr. Smith was recruited by the securities firm of Paine, Weber, Jackson & Curtis. At the time the company was making the transition from a Boston-based retail stock house to a fully fledged Wall Street investment banking house. He relocated to New York City where he focused on new program and product development – particularly in the real estate area.
While at Paine Webber, Earl was involved in managing IPO and secondary underwritings for Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Public Limited Partnerships (PLPs); IPO and Secondary underwritings in excess of half a billion dollars.
Assistant Director, Institute for New Enterprise Development
Prior to graduating from the Sloan School at MIT, Dr. Smith co-founded the Institute for New Enterprise Development (INED) with two faculty members and another graduating student. INED applied for and received a multi-year, half-million dollar grant from the Federal Office of Economic Opportunity to develop and deploy programs designed to foster economic activities in economically depressed areas. Over its history this non-profit consulting organization operated under a continuing series of federal grants totaling approximately ten million dollars.
Dr. Smith was involved in all aspects of INED’s activities – from writing and presenting grant applications to organizing and deploying the programs and acting as an instructor for seminars.
Education & Personal Background
Dr. Smith received a Bachelors of Business Administration from the University of Texas and a Masters of Management Science from the Alfred P. Sloan School at MIT. In 1996 he was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by the Department of Government and International Studies, Strathclyde University, Glasgow Scotland. Subsequently he taught advanced political and social theory as a Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Government, University of Birmingham in England.
Dr. Smith and his wife currently reside in Washington, DC. In his free time he enjoys fishing, boating, travel and music.
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