R. Michael Smith, one of two Senior Partners of Smith James Group,
Inc., is a eighteen-year veteran of the contract recruiting and retained executive search
industry. During his career in executive search, he has been involved in recruiting for a
variety of industries. Search assignments have included line and staff positions ranging
from individual technical contributors to Chief Executive Officers. He has conducted
successful search assignments for a wide variety of organizations ranging from non-profit
institutions to manufacturers and service organizations. Client companies have ranged in
revenue from less than $1.0 million to Fortune 100 level companies with revenues in the
billions. Michael's corporate background includes twelve years of service with three Fortune 500 companies encompassing assignments of increasing responsibility in finance, sales and marketing. He began his executive search career in 1982 as Vice President of a retained executive search firm in Atlanta. In 1984, he founded R. M. Smith Company, Inc., focusing on executive level search in high technology industries. In 1989, R. M. Smith Company, Inc., in cooperation with Michael James & Company, Inc., penetrated the high-end contract recruiting market.
From this venture evolved Smith James Group, Inc. Michael was co-founder of the company and was an integral part in fundamentally changing the business approach. For example, as opposed to being a percentage fee driven company, Smith James Group is compensated on an hourly basis, for those efforts directly related to the completion of the search assignment.
On a more personal basis, Mike grew up in Miami, Florida. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida (1968) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of North Carolina (1972). He is 55 years of age and resides with his wife, Melba, in Roswell, Georgia. He has two grown children in the work force. As outside activities, he enjoys landscape gardening and fresh water fishing.