. . . or should we say 'family-values'? At any rate it's good for some people to have overlapping family connections of one sort or another. You, dear readers, can sort it out.Meet Ryan Smith, [son of Ex-Mayor Scott Smith]
Communications and Government Relations Director
Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Authority
April 2017 - present 2 months
He began his climb-up at PMGAA in April 2016 as Assistant to the Executive Director for Inter-Governmental Relations.
From June 2008-April 2016 he was an Account Executive within a company named High Ground, Public Affairs Consultants calling itself Arizona’s Premier Lobbying Firm
Sep 2007-May 2008 Campaign Manager for his father
Before that - for 3 years and 3 months - he was Regional Vice-President K Hovnanian Homes from July 2004-Sep 2007.
He attended ASU and got a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science 2002-2007
Source: LinkedIn
One item missing on anything in Ryan Smith's work experience is that just about the same time in 2002 he began his studies in Political Science at ASU, Scott Smith and his son started a business: Qualtrics, which conducts online market research, is a prime example of the rapid growth of the Utah economy — and the sense that Utah is straining at the limits of its growth potential.
Scott Smith started the company with his son, Ryan, and a college classmate in his Provo home in 2002. Qualtrics now employs 1,300 people, including about 800 in a new headquarters building opened in August at the mouth of Provo Canyon. And it is bringing workers to Utah as fast as it can.
Ryan Smith, now the chief executive, said Qualtrics had hired about three dozen graduates from the University of Michigan alone last year. The company estimates that new arrivals bought 100 homes in Provo last year. . . by the end of the year, Mr. Smith said, he expects the company will have more employees outside Utah than in its home state. It is growing where it finds workers.
Source: New York Times May 21, 2017
According to Wikipedia
Website: https://www.qualtrics.com/
Scott Smith started the company with his son, Ryan, and a college classmate in his Provo home in 2002. Qualtrics now employs 1,300 people, including about 800 in a new headquarters building opened in August at the mouth of Provo Canyon. And it is bringing workers to Utah as fast as it can.
Ryan Smith, now the chief executive, said Qualtrics had hired about three dozen graduates from the University of Michigan alone last year. The company estimates that new arrivals bought 100 homes in Provo last year. . . by the end of the year, Mr. Smith said, he expects the company will have more employees outside Utah than in its home state. It is growing where it finds workers.
Source: New York Times May 21, 2017
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| Qualtrics Locations worlwide |
Qualtrics is a private research software company, based in Provo, Utah, in the United States.
The company was founded in 2002 by Scott M. Smith, Ryan Smith, Jared Smith and Stuart Orgill. Wikipedia
CEO: Ryan Smith (Dec 2002–)
Founded: 2002
Number of employees: 1,000
Website: https://www.qualtrics.com/
"After nearly eight years at our firm, Ryan began his new career today as the Government Relations Coordinator for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. All of his colleagues here at HighGround cannot be more pleased for him and for the Airport Authority; they are getting a wonderful human being and we still have a great friend.. . It was during Ryan’s father’s initial campaign for Mayor of Mesa in 2007-08 that we first met him.
He was working tirelessly for his father’s campaign and I joked with him that he was like a Mormon on a mission. Everything I needed to know about Ryan I learned in that campaign: tireless and kind, he exuded a genuine warmth for everyone around him. And after that successful campaign, we happily adopted him and it was a blessing for both parties ever since. . . "
Here's a link to High Ground to see what they do >>
http://www.azhighground.com/shaping-arizona-policy/
Scott Smith progeny Ryan Smith is no stranger to Arizona politics, according to this article Aug 19, 2014 written by Mike Sunnucks in Phoenix Business Journal that calls him out for taking 'a cheap shot'
He was working tirelessly for his father’s campaign and I joked with him that he was like a Mormon on a mission. Everything I needed to know about Ryan I learned in that campaign: tireless and kind, he exuded a genuine warmth for everyone around him. And after that successful campaign, we happily adopted him and it was a blessing for both parties ever since. . . "
Here's a link to High Ground to see what they do >>
http://www.azhighground.com/shaping-arizona-policy/
"Ryan Smith — the son of former Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and a close political adviser to his father – took a jab at Arizona Cardinals President Michael Bidwill in a social media post.
Scott Smith is running in the Republican primary for governor, while Bidwill backs Arizona Treasurer and former Cold Stone Creamery CEO Doug Ducey.
Ryan Smith — a political strategist at heavyweight consulting firm Highground Inc. — compared his father’s business experience as a home-building executive to Bidwill, the son of Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill.
Michael Bidwill led a recent effort to get business executives and leaders who were backing Smith to swing over to Ducey. Bidwill sent letters to top local CEOs looking to garner more business backing from Ducey and away from Scott Smith
Ryan Smith referenced the Cardinals president in a Facebook response to a Scott Smith campaign posting about business leaders backing the former mayor.
“Unlike a letter from a guy that was born into a family, given a taxpayer-funded stadium and guaranteed league revenue. These business leaders have worked to create jobs and know what leadership looks like,” Ryan Smith posted on Facebook earlier today.
The critical post was later deleted. It referenced public financing for University of Phoenix Stadium, the Bidwill family’s long tenure owning the Cardinals and the National Football League’s business model.
Smith spokesman David Leibowitz said Ryan Smith was frustrated with the negative attacks on his father, including a recent political ad that shows his parents’ house. Leibowitz said Ryan Smith has been working long hours for his dad’s gubernatorial bid.
More than $2 million has been spent so far in the GOP primary by political groups on negative ads and mailers, according to the Arizona Secretary of State’s office.
Cardinals spokesman Mark Dalton said Bidwill and the team were not going to wade into the political sniping.
“We can’t keep members of the Smith campaign from taking cheap shots but certainly are not going to stoop to that level ourselves,” Dalton said."
Twitter : @Ryansmithaz
Profile picture standing in front of the White House on March 2, 2017
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RyansmithAZ
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The Republic | azcentral.comFri Oct 4, 2013 10:19 AM
Source: AZCentral archives
Mayor Scott Smith has launched a non-profit foundation meant to develop leaders who can deal with some of Arizona’s most pressing problems.
The Arizona First Leadership Foundation Inc. was incorporated in December and last month began issuing news releases highlighting Smith’s work at the state and national levels.
Smith has been widely mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for governor, but told the Mesa Republic that he hasn’t decided whether to run and that the foundation is not directly connected with a potential gubernatorial campaign.
Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political strategist who often advises Gov. Jan Brewer and is a founder of the HighGround political-consulting firm, worked with Smith to set up the foundation. Smith’s son, Ryan Smith, works at HighGround.
The foundation could be useful in promoting a gubernatorial run, Coughlin said, but it would have work to do even if Smith bows out of electoral politics when his mayoral term ends in 2017.
“We brainstormed over a year and a half ago about things he wanted to see happening in Arizona that were not necessarily just Mesa-based, that were potentially bigger issues that would involve leadership, recruiting leaders from all over Arizona to work on shared community goals,” Coughlin said.
The foundation will seek potential leaders, pair them with experienced mentors, and explore “nonpartisan solutions to major problems facing the state,” Smith said. Information on how to enlist will be available when the foundation’s website is finished.
Smith told The Republic the foundation could play into a gubernatorial campaign, but its purpose is broader than that.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I came into office,” Smith said. “I looked at who was getting involved in leadership in this state, and I felt we were lacking. We were lacking people who put the interests of the state first and who serve because they see it as a civic duty as opposed to a personal ambition. And that’s on both sides of the aisle.”
On occasion, he said, leadership “means going against your party and possibly going against what’s popular and making tough decisions.”
Incorporated as a 501(c)(4) entity under IRS rules, the foundation states its goal as “the development of leaders to serve in all levels of the government, but the purpose shall exclude any political activity.”
“Arizona has a long history of leaders at all levels of government working together to find innovative solutions to the problems that face our state,” the incorporation papers say. Among those issues were the procurement and protection of military bases, water, federal land and transportation.
Karrin Taylor, a vice president for DMB Associates who is involved in regional economic development efforts, is a director of the foundation.
DMB is developing Eastmark on former General Motors property in southeast Mesa.
“I got involved because (Smith) asked me to get involved,” Taylor said.
She said the foundation will “reach out to some of the leaders in the business community around the state and say we need people with business experience that are willing to stand up and serve.”
The goal, she said, is to find people with “depth of experience that in many cases was lacking.”
As chairman of the foundation, Smith said he will visit six small Arizona cities this fall to conduct joint town halls with their mayors.
Topics include forest preservation, agriculture and flood control. The towns he plans to visit are Lake Havasu City, Prescott Valley, Maricopa, Thatcher, Payson and Pinetop-Lakeside.
HAH! At least one Valley reporter interpreted the tour as an indication that Smith is running for governor, but Coughlin and Smith insisted that is not the case.
Smith did say, however, that the tour could help him make the decision.
“What I said when I said I was going to consider running for governor was that I was going to get around the state” to assess whether leadership was adequately addressing issues, he said.
“All those things came together but they weren’t started simply because I might be running for governor,” Smith said.
The Arizona First Leadership Foundation Inc. was incorporated in December and last month began issuing news releases highlighting Smith’s work at the state and national levels.
Smith has been widely mentioned as a potential Republican candidate for governor, but told the Mesa Republic that he hasn’t decided whether to run and that the foundation is not directly connected with a potential gubernatorial campaign.
Chuck Coughlin, a Republican political strategist who often advises Gov. Jan Brewer and is a founder of the HighGround political-consulting firm, worked with Smith to set up the foundation. Smith’s son, Ryan Smith, works at HighGround.
The foundation could be useful in promoting a gubernatorial run, Coughlin said, but it would have work to do even if Smith bows out of electoral politics when his mayoral term ends in 2017.
“We brainstormed over a year and a half ago about things he wanted to see happening in Arizona that were not necessarily just Mesa-based, that were potentially bigger issues that would involve leadership, recruiting leaders from all over Arizona to work on shared community goals,” Coughlin said.
The foundation will seek potential leaders, pair them with experienced mentors, and explore “nonpartisan solutions to major problems facing the state,” Smith said. Information on how to enlist will be available when the foundation’s website is finished.
Smith told The Republic the foundation could play into a gubernatorial campaign, but its purpose is broader than that.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I came into office,” Smith said. “I looked at who was getting involved in leadership in this state, and I felt we were lacking. We were lacking people who put the interests of the state first and who serve because they see it as a civic duty as opposed to a personal ambition. And that’s on both sides of the aisle.”
On occasion, he said, leadership “means going against your party and possibly going against what’s popular and making tough decisions.”
Incorporated as a 501(c)(4) entity under IRS rules, the foundation states its goal as “the development of leaders to serve in all levels of the government, but the purpose shall exclude any political activity.”
“Arizona has a long history of leaders at all levels of government working together to find innovative solutions to the problems that face our state,” the incorporation papers say. Among those issues were the procurement and protection of military bases, water, federal land and transportation.
Karrin Taylor, a vice president for DMB Associates who is involved in regional economic development efforts, is a director of the foundation.
DMB is developing Eastmark on former General Motors property in southeast Mesa.
“I got involved because (Smith) asked me to get involved,” Taylor said.
She said the foundation will “reach out to some of the leaders in the business community around the state and say we need people with business experience that are willing to stand up and serve.”
The goal, she said, is to find people with “depth of experience that in many cases was lacking.”
As chairman of the foundation, Smith said he will visit six small Arizona cities this fall to conduct joint town halls with their mayors.
Topics include forest preservation, agriculture and flood control. The towns he plans to visit are Lake Havasu City, Prescott Valley, Maricopa, Thatcher, Payson and Pinetop-Lakeside.
HAH! At least one Valley reporter interpreted the tour as an indication that Smith is running for governor, but Coughlin and Smith insisted that is not the case.
Smith did say, however, that the tour could help him make the decision.
“What I said when I said I was going to consider running for governor was that I was going to get around the state” to assess whether leadership was adequately addressing issues, he said.
“All those things came together but they weren’t started simply because I might be running for governor,” Smith said.
