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MoeDees Men and Women of Black History: Robert F. Smith

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Content provided by Maurice Taylor and Dion Ingram. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Maurice Taylor and Dion Ingram or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Robert F. Smith Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners

In 2015 Forbes magazine ranked Robert Smith as the wealthiest African-Americans in America being worth more than 3.3 billion dollars. Born in December 1, 1962 Denver, CO. Both of Robert's parents were educators and earned their PhDs. They lived in a middle class neighborhood in Denver where they stressed the importance and value of education. While an infant his mother took him to Washington DC to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr delivered the famous "I have a dream speech". As a junior in high school in the 70's Robert showed a fascination and a proficiency in Computer science. He broke down a transistor to discover it had been invented by Bell Labs, which had a nearby office. After securing the phone number, Robert called them and asked about a summer internship. He found out that Bell Labs did have one but only college upperclassmen could apply. Undaunted by this initial rejection, Robert called back every day for 2 weeks to the point the HR dept. stopped answering his call after day 2. So then Robert cut his call to every monday for 5 months. Eventually his persistence paid off. After an MIT student didn't show in June Bell Labs called and asked him to come in for an interview. Robert took advantage of the interview and landed the internship where he worked for the next 4 years during the summer and winter breaks. While at Bell Labs he developed a reliability test for semiconductors. After graduating high school with honors, he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. Robert then went on to work as a chemical engineer where his career made stops at Air Products & Chemicals, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and later at Kraft Foods. To his parents dismay, Robert put his chemical engineering career at Kraft Foods on hold to attend Columbia Business School (one of the most prestigious Business schools in the world). After earning a MBA from Columbia, he was recruited to work on Wall Street, he accepted a position at Goldman Sachs’ in their Mergers & Acquisitions department from 1994 to 2000, both in New York and in Silicon Valley. Shortly after Goldman's IPO in 1999, Robert left Goldman Sachs and founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm. (His Goldman colleagues thought he was crazy for that move, but he was very successful and over the next 17 years he built up stakes in more than 30 companies. Robert is a very private person and shunned the spotlight despite all of his success. Yet he could not avoid media attention when in July of 2015 he married model, fashion editor, and former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Hope Dworaczyk, in Italy. Other than that brush with celebrity Robert has stayed out of public view. He quietly supported African-American and African causes. The magazine The Chronicle of Philanthropy which covers the nonprofit world ranked Robert as one of the Philanthropy 50 in 2017. Robert is the only African-American member The Giving Pledge (charitable organization made founded by Bill gates and warren buffett and made up of billionaires to encourage wealthy people to contribute to philanthropic causes) During an address to American University students, he recalled attending President Obama’s first inauguration with his 93-year-old grandfather, a former Postal Service worker and coat-check clerk at the U.S. Senate. His grandfather, Smith said, could remember being one of the only African-Americans at a Franklin Roosevelt inauguration. Now, were they surprised that Obama had made it to the White House? No, they were not. “We are only bound by the limits of our own conviction,” he said, voicing the same kind of resolve that won him the Bell internship decades earlier. “We can transcend the script of a pre-defined story, and pave the way for the future that we design. We just need to tap that power, that conviction, that determination within us.” We at MoeDees would like to thank you for listening and God for the opportunity. Please support our website, MoeDees.com Credits: MoeDees Men and Women of Black History: Robert F. Smith https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2015/09/29/meet-the-african-american-billionaire-businessman-whos-richer-than-michael-jordan/#499ae4f424ad https://givingpledge.org/ https://www.philanthropy.com/ Robert F. Smith 2017 Interview Columbia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUHQQD5nko Robert Smith 2017 Interview at Cornell (Entrepreneur of the Year recipient) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOf3ThI4Kn8 Robert Smith's Top 10 Rules of Success as told through Evan Carmichael https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7INTqGVQKk MoeDees Podcast Social Media Facebook MoeDeesPodcast https://www.facebook.com/MoeDeesPodcast/ Twitter @moedeespodcast Instagram moedeespodcast Contact us via Email: MoeDeesPodcast@MoeDees.com Thank you: To God, Our Families, Our Friends, The city of Detroit (Shoutout Numbers streets neighborhood, Six and Seven Mile areas) Jerome and Mostly Sports Facebook Group, Mostly Sports Podcast, Jodey (https://www.cliffravenscraft.com), Gene and the Buc What You Heard Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBwz7zjLxt7CzjQQpBMc9Q), Jay Jones (http://blackentrepreneurblueprint.com), and all our supporters!
  continue reading

36 episodes

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Archived series ("Inactive feed" status)

When? This feed was archived on January 07, 2019 01:23 (5y ago). Last successful fetch was on November 06, 2018 02:22 (5+ y ago)

Why? Inactive feed status. Our servers were unable to retrieve a valid podcast feed for a sustained period.

What now? You might be able to find a more up-to-date version using the search function. This series will no longer be checked for updates. If you believe this to be in error, please check if the publisher's feed link below is valid and contact support to request the feed be restored or if you have any other concerns about this.

Manage episode 199376071 series 2090949
Content provided by Maurice Taylor and Dion Ingram. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Maurice Taylor and Dion Ingram or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://player.fm/legal.

Robert F. Smith Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners

In 2015 Forbes magazine ranked Robert Smith as the wealthiest African-Americans in America being worth more than 3.3 billion dollars. Born in December 1, 1962 Denver, CO. Both of Robert's parents were educators and earned their PhDs. They lived in a middle class neighborhood in Denver where they stressed the importance and value of education. While an infant his mother took him to Washington DC to attend the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr delivered the famous "I have a dream speech". As a junior in high school in the 70's Robert showed a fascination and a proficiency in Computer science. He broke down a transistor to discover it had been invented by Bell Labs, which had a nearby office. After securing the phone number, Robert called them and asked about a summer internship. He found out that Bell Labs did have one but only college upperclassmen could apply. Undaunted by this initial rejection, Robert called back every day for 2 weeks to the point the HR dept. stopped answering his call after day 2. So then Robert cut his call to every monday for 5 months. Eventually his persistence paid off. After an MIT student didn't show in June Bell Labs called and asked him to come in for an interview. Robert took advantage of the interview and landed the internship where he worked for the next 4 years during the summer and winter breaks. While at Bell Labs he developed a reliability test for semiconductors. After graduating high school with honors, he attended Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. Robert then went on to work as a chemical engineer where his career made stops at Air Products & Chemicals, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, and later at Kraft Foods. To his parents dismay, Robert put his chemical engineering career at Kraft Foods on hold to attend Columbia Business School (one of the most prestigious Business schools in the world). After earning a MBA from Columbia, he was recruited to work on Wall Street, he accepted a position at Goldman Sachs’ in their Mergers & Acquisitions department from 1994 to 2000, both in New York and in Silicon Valley. Shortly after Goldman's IPO in 1999, Robert left Goldman Sachs and founded Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm. (His Goldman colleagues thought he was crazy for that move, but he was very successful and over the next 17 years he built up stakes in more than 30 companies. Robert is a very private person and shunned the spotlight despite all of his success. Yet he could not avoid media attention when in July of 2015 he married model, fashion editor, and former Playboy Playmate of the Year, Hope Dworaczyk, in Italy. Other than that brush with celebrity Robert has stayed out of public view. He quietly supported African-American and African causes. The magazine The Chronicle of Philanthropy which covers the nonprofit world ranked Robert as one of the Philanthropy 50 in 2017. Robert is the only African-American member The Giving Pledge (charitable organization made founded by Bill gates and warren buffett and made up of billionaires to encourage wealthy people to contribute to philanthropic causes) During an address to American University students, he recalled attending President Obama’s first inauguration with his 93-year-old grandfather, a former Postal Service worker and coat-check clerk at the U.S. Senate. His grandfather, Smith said, could remember being one of the only African-Americans at a Franklin Roosevelt inauguration. Now, were they surprised that Obama had made it to the White House? No, they were not. “We are only bound by the limits of our own conviction,” he said, voicing the same kind of resolve that won him the Bell internship decades earlier. “We can transcend the script of a pre-defined story, and pave the way for the future that we design. We just need to tap that power, that conviction, that determination within us.” We at MoeDees would like to thank you for listening and God for the opportunity. Please support our website, MoeDees.com Credits: MoeDees Men and Women of Black History: Robert F. Smith https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2015/09/29/meet-the-african-american-billionaire-businessman-whos-richer-than-michael-jordan/#499ae4f424ad https://givingpledge.org/ https://www.philanthropy.com/ Robert F. Smith 2017 Interview Columbia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACUHQQD5nko Robert Smith 2017 Interview at Cornell (Entrepreneur of the Year recipient) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOf3ThI4Kn8 Robert Smith's Top 10 Rules of Success as told through Evan Carmichael https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7INTqGVQKk MoeDees Podcast Social Media Facebook MoeDeesPodcast https://www.facebook.com/MoeDeesPodcast/ Twitter @moedeespodcast Instagram moedeespodcast Contact us via Email: MoeDeesPodcast@MoeDees.com Thank you: To God, Our Families, Our Friends, The city of Detroit (Shoutout Numbers streets neighborhood, Six and Seven Mile areas) Jerome and Mostly Sports Facebook Group, Mostly Sports Podcast, Jodey (https://www.cliffravenscraft.com), Gene and the Buc What You Heard Podcast (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDBwz7zjLxt7CzjQQpBMc9Q), Jay Jones (http://blackentrepreneurblueprint.com), and all our supporters!
  continue reading

36 episodes

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