Gary N. Smith Email & Phone Number

Northern New England

Chief Executive leading a firm dedicated to helping public schools succeed and excel. We provide tools and supports that allow schools to run more efficiently and effectively so that School leaders can focus their time of the important work of raising the bar on learning for students.

Oakland, Maine

Chief Executive for a progressive Maine School District with a vision for student centered learning grounded in strategic planning. I lead with a creative, collaborative and participative approach. I work to fully leverage and develop the diverse skills of my Administrative Team, and have expanded leadership opportunities throughout RSU 18. My Administrative Team guides 250 teaching staff with total staffing of 500 employees serving 3,000 students. I have worked to develop productive partnerships with post secondary institutions, private organizations, charter schools, and other public schools to move learning beyond the walls of the traditional classroom. I seek to establish a culture of continuous improvement for both students and staff, consistently improving strategies for learning in RSU 18. I oversee an annual operating budget of $34.3 million dollars. I also manage a portfolio of $2.5 million in grant funding from federal, state and private sources. Under my leadership, we have implemented a multi-year fiscal planning horizon to navigate through the most challenging of financial times, adjusting to the loss of over $4 million in state educational funding without any major impacts on educational programming or community tax burden. I provide leadership and support for all of RSU 18's business operational areas, and have led efforts to streamline business and technology operations. RSU 18 operates at one of the lowest per students cost ratios in the state, while achieving a 93-95% graduation rate and a 1.2% dropout rate. In addition to my role as Superintendent I am the Chairperson for the Maine State Superintendent's Funding Committee and am active in the Maine School Funding legislative process. I serve on the Board of Directors for the Mid Maine Technical Center, Mid Maine Regional Adult Ed Program and the Alfond Youth Center.

Winslow, Maine

Responsible for all aspects of SU 52’s financial and operational activities. SU 52 is comprised of three school units and a shared central administrative office. SU 52 is the second largest school union in Maine with over 2900 students, 450 staff members, and a combined budget of over $29 million dollars. I worked directly with the Superintendent of Schools, Assistant Superintendent/Director of Curriculum, School Administrators, and Support Services personnel. I provided collaborative leadership and management for SU 52 with responsibility for finances, budgeting, contract negotiation and administration, payroll and benefits, legal compliance, auditing, risk management, grant writing and management, human resources, technology services, facilities maintenance and capital improvement, custodial services, food services, and transportation services. I provided a crucial link between the Superintendent’s Office, school administrators, town governments, local citizens, school committees, union organizations, state government officials, and media relations. I was instrumental in efforts to obtain state and local funding for Winslow High School’s addition and renovation ($9 million) and other SU 52 projects in an extremely competitive state school construction environment. I have played key roles in school consolidation efforts for central Maine communities, and led and facilitated process and system improvements across SU 52.

Westbrook, Maine

Project Leader for SAPPI’s North American implementation of SAP with responsibility for all information services and technology activities. I managed the integration of the SAP system with SAPPI Europe, SAPPI SA, and SAPPI Far East Regions. I oversaw a multinational team of 50 people and coordinated acquisition of products and services from a multitude of vendors, managing a total budget for this project of $50 million.

Greater Boston Area

Acting Chief Information Officer | 1996 – 1997Worked with Business and IT leaders to develop a renewed systems direction for SD Warren. I facilitated the development of a company wide business led steering committee that provided strategic direction for IS. Oversaw the development of plans to move from a nonintegrated systems base to a common integrated system. I formulated plans to move from a decentralized organization to a service focused centralized organization, coordinating multiple consulting organizations to help develop and execute these initiatives. I developed the strategy to address our Year 2000 computer exposure issues. I developed the strategy to support our current legacy systems base while proceeding with systems replacement. Worked with the other SAPPI World-Wide Regions to ensure coordination of IT activities across the SAPPI Group. Overall responsibility for SD Warren's IS organization of 90 people (40 consultants) with a $19.0 million budget. This environment was comprised of internal and outsourced data centers running on multiple server environments (IBM (MVS, VSE, AS400), Digital, HP).

Skowhegan, Maine

Team member of the leadership and management team for Sappi’s Flagship Paper Mill. I led the effort to combine the business systems and manufacturing systems groups (30 professionals) following a major reorganization at the site. Formulated strategy and plans to move the group towards a self directed team based group supporting the sites IBM, Digital, Desktop systems and network, while group size went to 16 (from 30). Worked with site and corporate personnel to accomplish the site IT activities as well as playing key roles in corporate IT initiatives. The Manufacturing and Business Systems Department consisted of 16 professionals working in a team-based environment with a $3.5 million budget.Additional Strategic Roles included:● Strategic Systems Project leader in 1996 for a company-wide Information Technology effort to develop an IT strategic plan dealing with systems direction, systems architecture and organization.● Project team member involved in developing system solutions to make SD Warren an independent Sappi North American business unit. (1995-96).● Project team member involved in separating Warren computing systems from Scott following the sale of Warren to Sappi (1995).● Interim Somerset Financial Controller with responsibility for Finance, Purchasing, and Information Technology in 1994.● Site Project Leader for a restructuring/down sizing project in 1992.Project Leader | 1988-91 I supported customer service, financial, and production systems. Managed team providing system enhancement and new development efforts.Sr. Programmer Analyst | 1986-88 I supported financial and customer service user groups, providing systems development services and support. Worked closely with users on efforts to expand systems in order to meet production expansion requirements.

Houston, Texas Area

I worked with researchers in Texas, Louisiana, and California assisting them with research and development efforts. Provided education support and classes to technical user communities.

Greater Boston Area

Working on a variety of consulting engagements in the greater Boston area. My assignments included; systems development, project management, and team leadership roles. These consulting engagements were in the utility, banking, publishing, government and insurance industries.

Masters Of Business Administration, !

Bs, Business Administration

Activities and Societies: Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society