Raymond W. Smith
Encyclopedia
Raymond W. Smith is currently the Chairman of Rothschild
N M Rothschild & Sons
N M Rothschild & Sons is a private investment banking company, belonging to the Rothschild family...

 Continuation Investments, Founding Partner of Arlington Capital Partners
Arlington Capital Partners
Arlington Capital Partners is a Washington, DC based private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout and recapitalization investments in middle market companies. Since inception in 1999, the firm has raised approximately $1.0 billion in investor commitments across two private equity funds.In...

, a private equity firm, and Chairman of Verizon Ventures.

Career

Raymond W. Smith rose from an entry level management trainee at AT&T to the Chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...

 (formerly Bell Atlantic). Prior to becoming chairman and chief executive officer of Bell Atlantic, Ray held the titles of president and chief financial officer. He also served as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...

’s director of finance.

Under his leadership, Smith refashioned the company into the largest communications corporation in the country, positioning the firm globally in the expanding markets of the future. During his tenure, Bell Atlantic acquired NYNEX
NYNEX
NYNEX Corporation was a telephone company that served five New England states as well as most of New York state, except the Rochester area, from 1984 through 1997....

 and GTE
GTE
GTE Corporation, formerly General Telephone & Electronics Corporation was the largest independent telephone company in the United States during the days of the Bell System....

, two of the largest transactions in business history. In 1998 Fortune magazine listed Bell Atlantic as the number one communications company in terms of increased shareholder value over the previous ten years. It ranked 17th out of the top 1000 companies.

In 1999, he retired as chairman of New York-based Verizon after ten years as the corporation's top officer.

Following his retirement from Verizon, he founded Arlington Capital Partners (ACP), an investment company that has successfully completed two offerings: ACP I at $450M and ACP II at $650M.

Smith also became the Chairman of Rothschild Inc. and N.M. Rothschild & Sons Canada Limited in 1999. He guided Rothschild’s presence in the Americas through the banking crisis without a single restatement or blemish.

In addition to his professional achievements, he has been very active in his personal life. He is happily married to his wife, Phyllis, and together they have five children who have given them ten grandchildren. He has been a playwright, director, producer and erstwhile actor in more than 50 productions in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. The Player’s Club of Swarthmore has named one of its theaters after him. He has also become a sought-after artist with scores of paintings.

As a lifetime poet, he has produced hundreds of offerings over the years, most recently in a book of his poetry, Songs of No Consequence. Also, he has written the following books and plays: Reigh’s Myth, The Burial of My Cat, Chamber Music, Dormont, Ask Not for Whom, The Warhol Unit, Egyptian Baskets, Janjaweed, The Fetal Pig, Time-X, The Most Eminent Saga of Harold Bluetooth, Arrival in Nine Hours, and Nineteeneleven.

He is a well-traveled scholar with special emphasis on the culture of Ancient Egypt. He recently negotiated a long term loan of a collection of Egyptian antiquities from Eton College to Johns Hopkins University. He has also traveled to Uganda, Viet Nam and Thailand with the Rockefeller Foundation and to China and the Middle East as a Special Envoy of the State Department. His most recent scholarly trip was to Antarctica.

Smith currently serves on the following civic boards: The Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

, Curtis Institute of Music
Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...

 Advisory Board, Central Park Conservancy, George Mason Life Sciences Advisory Board, The Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

, The American Research Center in Egypt - Presidential Appointee, and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

Over the years, Ray has served on the boards of Bell Atlantic, the Carnegie Corporation, Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...

, CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...

, Corestates Financial, First Union (now Wachovia
Wachovia
Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States based on total assets...

), US Airways
US Airways
US Airways, Inc. is a major airline based in the U.S. city of Tempe, Arizona. The airline is an operating unit of US Airways Group and is the sixth largest airline by traffic and eighth largest by market value in the country....

, NTT DoCoMo
NTT DoCoMo
is the predominant mobile phone operator in Japan. The name is officially an abbreviation of the phrase, "do communications over the mobile network", and is also from a compound word dokomo, meaning "everywhere" in Japanese. Docomo provides phone, video phone , i-mode , and mail services...

, The Carnegie Corporation Board of Trustees; The Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...

, The Lincoln Center Board of Trustees, President’s Committee on the Arts & Humanities, University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

 Board of Trustees, The Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...

-Director, National Forum on Education & Technology, President’s Committee for Educational Technology-Founding Member, Board of Overseers of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences-University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

, Board of Visitors of the Fuqua School of Business-Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...

, The Urban Affairs Partnership-Director, The Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...

-Director, The Business Roundtable, Business Higher Education Forum, Challenger Center for Space Science Education Board, Private Sector Council – National Advisory Board, Arden Theater Company – Board of Advisors, Bell Communications Research, Inc.-Director, AMPS, Inc., Philadelphia Urban Coalition-Director, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania–Director and Chairman of the Management Committee, Delaware Valley Regional Energy Council-Chairman, Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation-Executive Board, and Philadelphia Economic Advisory Board-Chairman

Education

He holds a B.S. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.B.A degree from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh. He has been awarded honorary degrees from – Doctor of Humane Letters – 1987, Spring Garden College
Spring Garden College
Spring Garden College, established as the Spring Garden Institute in 1851, was a private technical college founded in Spring Garden, Pennsylvania . Its building at 523-25 North Broad Street was designed by architect Stephen Decatur Button.The college closed in the 1990s...

 – Doctor of Business Administration – 1989, Drexel University
Drexel University
Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...

 – Doctor of Science – 1994, Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology is a technological university located on a campus in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA – founded in 1870 with an 1868 bequest from Edwin A. Stevens. It is known for its engineering, science, and technological management curricula.The institute has produced leading...

 – Doctor of Engineering – 1995, New York Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology
New York Institute of Technology is a private, non-sectarian, co-educational research university in New York City. NYIT has five schools and two colleges, all with a strong emphasis on technology and applied scientific research...

 – Doctor of Science – 1998, and University of Pittsburgh – Doctor of Commercial Science – 2009.

He spends a month a year studying in Oxford’s Christchurch College and is a frequent participant in Smithsonian Lectures. He is a newly appointed Visiting Professor of Business and Engineering at George Mason University
George Mason University
George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

.

Awards and recognition

Smith has received a number of awards and honors. They include: CEO of the year (received 4 times), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Cleveland Dodge Medal from Columbia University, The Wanamaker Award from the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind, The Mickey Leland Award for Diversity in Telecommunications, Lifetime Member Award from the NAACP, The Legend in Leadership Award, The American Academy of Achievement Award, Legacy Laureate from the University of Pittsburgh, and Points of Light Award.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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