Robert F. Smith (investor) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Robert Smith
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| Born |
Robert Frederick Smith
December 1, 1962 |
| Education | Cornell University (BS) Columbia Business School (MBA) |
| Occupation | Businessman, philanthropist |
| Title | Chairman & CEO, Vista Equity Partners |
| Spouse(s) |
Suzanne McFayden
(m. 1988; div. 2014)Hope Dworaczyk (m. 2015)
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| Children | 7 |
Robert Frederick Smith (born December 1, 1962) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. He graduated from Cornell University with a chemical engineering degree and from Columbia Business School with an MBA, before working as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. In 2019, while delivering the commencement speech at Morehouse College, Smith pledged to pay off the entire million of student loan debt of all of the members of the 2019 graduating class.
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Early life
Smith was born to Dr. William Robert Smith and Dr. Sylvia Myrna Smith, who were both school teachers. He grew up in a predominantly African American, middle-class neighborhood in Denver, Colorado. When he was an infant, his mother apparently carried him at the March on Washington, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. He attended Carson Elementary School and East High School in Denver.
In high school, he applied for an internship at Bell Labs but was told the program was intended for college students. Smith persisted, calling each Monday for five months. When a student from M.I.T. did not show up, he got the position, and that summer he developed a reliability test for semiconductors. Smith earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1985. In 1994, he received his Master of Business Administration from Columbia University with concentrations in finance and marketing.
Education and early career
Smith then attended East High School ('81) in Denver. While in high school, he applied for an internship at Bell Labs, but was told the program was intended for college students. Smith persisted, calling each Monday for five months. When a student from M.I.T. did not show up, he got the position, and that summer he developed a reliability test for semiconductors.
Smith earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Cornell University in 1985. While there, he won the Procter and Gamble Technical Excellence Award for chemical engineering. In 1982 he was initiated as a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha (APA) fraternity, the first African-American intercollegiate Greek-lettered fraternity.
After graduating from Cornell, Smith worked at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Air Products & Chemicals. Later, he worked at Kraft General Foods as a chemical engineer, and registered two United States and two European patents as the principal investor.
In 1994, he received his Master of Business Administration from Columbia University, with concentrations in finance and marketing.
From 1994 to 2000, after receiving his MBA he worked for investment bank Goldman Sachs in technology investment banking. He first worked for it in New York City, and then moved to Silicon Valley in 1997 where he started Goldman's technology-focused merger and acquisitions efforts there. He advised on $50 billion in merger and acquisition activity with companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Texas Instruments, eBay, and Yahoo.
Vista Equity Partners
In 2000, Smith founded Vista Equity Partners, an Austin, Texas-based private equity and venture capital firm of which he is the principal founder, chairman, and chief executive. Vista purchased enterprise software businesses and brought performance improvements to the businesses. According to Black Enterprise magazine, Smith was credited with consistently generating a 30% rate of return for his investors from the company's inception through 2020. As of 2019, Vista Equity Partners was the fourth-largest enterprise software company, after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP, including all their holdings. Vista has invested in companies such as STATS, Ping Identity, and Jio. As of 2019, Vista Equity Partners had closed more than $46 billion of funding.
In 2016, Smith was named Private Equity International's Game Changer of the Year for his work with Vista.
In 2018, Smith was included in Vanity Fair's New Establishment List, which is an annual ranking of individuals who have made impactful business innovations. The 2019 PitchBook Private Equity Awards named Vista Equity Partners "Dealmaker of the Year".
In January 2022, the company had $86 billion in assets under management.
Philanthropy
On May 19, 2019, during his 2019 commencement speech at Morehouse College, Smith pledged a reported $34M in student loan debt, "(including) the debt of parents and guardians incurred" over the educational pursuit of each member of the 2019 graduating class. In a June 2020 report, Time reported the launch of The Student Freedom Initiative, a nonprofit led by Smith, to benefit HBCU students. According to Forbes, "Smith is the first African-American to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment to contribute the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes."
Politics
In December 2022, taking a stand together against increasing instances of racism and antisemitism in the US, Smith joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams, Reverends Al Sharpton and Conrad Tillard, World Values Network founder and CEO Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, and Elisha Wiesel to host 15 Days of Light, celebrating Hanukkah and Kwanzaa in a unifying holiday ceremony at Carnegie Hall. Smith said: "When we unify the souls of our two communities, we can usher in light to banish the darkness of racism, bigotry, and antisemitism."
Tax fine
In the 1990s, businessman Robert T. Brockman approached Smith about creating a private equity fund, and offered to back the initial fund. As part of the deal, Brockman required an offshore trust be set up to conceal earnings from tax authorities and avoid litigation in US courts. Brockman also required that the first fund be located in the Cayman Islands, and set aside some of the interest earned to protect him against losses. Brockman's proposal was a "take-it-or-leave-it offer". According to Smith's later non-prosecution agreement, Brockman dictated "the unique terms and unorthodox structure to the arrangement" and he accepted the offer as a "unique business opportunity he eagerly wanted to pursue". Brockman's lawyer helped Smith set up the offshore entity.
In October 2020, Smith entered into a non-prosecution agreement with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), agreeing to assist the DOJ in a separate case against Brockman who was charged that month with what the DOJ called the "largest ever" tax fraud scheme by a U.S. citizen, and to pay a fine of $139 million. According to the DOJ, Brockman led Smith to use the offshore trust that concealed income. Brockman died in August 2022, while his trial was pending.
Other achievements
Smith has served as the chairman of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, on the board of overseers of Columbia Business School, as a member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, on the Cornell University Tech Board, and since 2008 as a Trustee of the Boys & Girls Clubs of San Francisco.
Smith became the board chairman of Carnegie Hall in 2016, the first African-American to hold that position; he had been a member of the board since 2013. Since 2018, Smith has served as a board member of the Louis Armstrong House Museum.
In April 2020, Governor Greg Abbott named Smith to the Strike Force to Open Texas – a group "tasked with finding safe and effective ways to slowly reopen the state" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In October 2022, media outlets including TMZ, Revolt TV, Variety, and Vibe Magazine published an article highlighting Smith being nominated by Floyd Mayweather, Jr. to serve as executive producer of a series of film and television projects titled "The GOAT" aimed to tell Mayweather's life story. Mayweather said: “As someone who owns his own brand, I can’t think of better partners than Deon (Deon Taylor), Roxanne (Roxanne Avent Taylor), Robert F. Smith — the wealthiest African American in the world — and Hidden Empire Films, a prolific Black-owned production company.”
Honors and awards
In 2010, Smith received the Ripple of Hope Award from the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.
In 2014, he received an honorary doctorate from Huston-Tillotson University.
In 2016, Cornell University named the Robert Frederick Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering after him, following a donation. Smith received the 2016 Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Chairman's Award.
In 2017, Smith was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Denver. That year, Smith was also named by Forbes as one of the 100 greatest living business minds. That year Smith also received Ebony’s John H. Johnson Award. Also in 2017, Smith was named in The Chronicle of Philanthropy's "Philanthropy 50".
In 2018, he received the International Medical Corps Humanitarian of the Year Award, and the Candle in Business and Philanthropy Award from Morehouse College,
He received an honorary doctorate at Morehouse College in 2019. He was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame as a Class of 2019 Legend. In October 2019, Smith received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy, which is given to individuals who have donated private wealth to the public. He also received the 2019 United Negro College Fund President’s Award.
Smith was included in the Time 100 in 2020, Time's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2020, he was also recognized by Cornell University with its Distinguished Alumni Award.
He received the Award of Excellence from the National Association of Investment Companies. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of International Affairs from American University's School of International Service. He has been a trustee at Columbia Business School.
Personal life
In 1988, Smith married his first wife, fellow Cornell alum Suzanne McFayden. They divorced in 2014. ..... Smith has three children with his first wife. He also has two sons and two daughters with his wife Hope. Smith owns homes in Austin, Texas, Malibu, California, New York City, Denver, and Florida.
Smith partnered with Matthew Burkett to purchase the historic Lincoln Hills, Colorado property in Gilpin County in 2007 and convert it into an exclusive invitation-only fly fishing club. Lincoln Hills was founded in 1922 as a destination summer resort for Black families. He now uses it to host musicians and underprivileged schoolchildren.
In a 2018 cover story, Forbes said that Smith the wealthiest African-American, passing Oprah Winfrey. As of 2021, Smith was one of 15 Black billionaires in the world. In November 2023, Forbes said his net worth was $9.2 billion, and that he was the 78th-richest person in the United States, and the 235th-richest person in the world.
