Sam Smith
Sam Smith brings to the team a rich blend of experience in the fields of finance and business planning/management, in addition to his distinguished accomplishments in battery chemistry and engineering. Sam offers a "systems" approach to each electric vehicle project he takes on, bringing together disparate yet critically important elements to help our clients form a cohesive, analytical approach to EV enterprises.
Mr. Smith has served as a senior-level financial advisor with UBS, a major international brokerage house. In this role he provided financial advice, planning and management services to a variety of business and individual clients. He specialized in direct account management providing his clients with guidance related to maximizing returns on both personal and retirement accounts. He also served as an advisor to a major not-for-profit organization in business planning, cash management and focused fund raising.
Sam has also been involved with a number of ventures related to alternative transportation. He served as President of Sentry Hill Management Group and was instrumental in bringing Daimler-Chrysler Electric Minivans into shared ride shuttle service at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This project was a joint effort of Daimler-Chrysler, the Los Angeles Airport Authority and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP). Smith structured a comprehensive solution that involved establishing a charger infrastructure, operating procedures, 24/7 vehicle tracking, and operations analysis of comprehensive data collection.
Earlier, Mr. Smith served as Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Next Century Power in San Francisco, where he marketed nickel zinc battery technology. He was successful in securing research and development funding to assemble a single line production facility for cell production and worked with a number of international vehicle manufacturers to define hybrid and pure electric vehicle battery pack specifications.
Mr. Smith has also acted as Vice President of Marketing and Product Development for Electrosource, Inc., in Austin, Texas. Here, he raised $5 million of R&D funds for product development and was directly responsible for two strategic international licensing agreements. Through his efforts, Electrosource signed an agreement with Daimler-Chrysler for 15,000 battery packs for the EPIC Electric Minivan, which was later cancelled when the California Air Resources Board rescinded its EV Mandate. He is a recognized expert in the field of batteries related to pure electric transportation.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Smith was an Operations Manager with Science Application International Corporation (SAIC) for 11 years, based out of McLean, Virginia. In this role, he managed several classified technology development programs in sensor development and signature management. Other projects he managed included:
An evaluation of the "National Aerospace Plane"
The National Advisory Committee on Semiconductors
Projected force structure of the Air Force
A number of technology development and demonstration programs
Prior to joining SAIC he served in the US Air Force for 20 years as a fighter pilot. He spent several years as an instructor pilot as well as serving on operational assignments in the Philippines and Germany. In 1975, he retired from his final assignment in the Pentagon.
Education
Mr. Smith has a BS degree in Engineering from the University of Oklahoma and a Masters of Science in Systems Management from the University of Southern California.
Sam Smith's Role
Sam Smith rounds out the expertise of the EV World & Associates team with his penetrating insight into battery chemistry, which is regarded by most pundits as the make-or-break point of the entire EV industry. In addition, his experience in finance and planning/management puts him in a unique position to advise our clients on the broadest possible range of their business issues including capital formation, supply chain issues, and cash management.
