Trenton O. Smith Email & Phone Number

Salt Lake City, Ut, Us

Salt Lake City, Ut, Us

Philadelphia, Pa, Us

Provide strategic guidance and expert insights on institutional investors through regular consultations and participation in board meetings to enhance the firm’s fundraising efforts, strategy development, and marketing plans.

Sit on investment committee and collaborate with fund leadership on manager selection and investment analysis. Advise on fund strategy, investment processes, asset allocation, and other key business activities.

Dearborn, Mi, Us

LED $3.0 B+ investment platform including Equities, Private Credit, Private Equity, and Real Asset portfoliosBUILT alternative investments program from scratch • Designed and implementing portfolio strategy and construction • Executed shift from 0% allocation to 25% exposure • Built out portfolio management team, systems, and processes • Established firm reputation as a top tier partner • Made 48 investments with 29 partners, committing over $1.8 B in capital • Exited the J-curve in year 3, delivering triple-digit alpha in Private Equity, Real Assets, and Private Credit INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT • Chair - Investment Committee, Michigan Automobile Insurance Placement Facility (MAIPF), https://www.maipf.org/ • Member - Investment Committee, Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association (MCCA), http://www.michigancatastrophic.com/ • Member - Investment Committe, Michigan Property and Casualty Guaranty Association (MPCGA), https://mpcga.org/

Midland, Michigan, Us

HIGHLIGHTS• Manage $2.5B in real estate and private equity investments ($2.0B NAV including $500MM direct RE, $0.5B commitments) for 3 pension plans and a captive insurance company• Developed a portfolio strategy now being rolled out to portfolios beyond my own• Discovered an overlooked market opportunity and shifted $200MM in assets to capture 8% better downside protection and fee savings of $1.5MM per annum• Gained access to and executed $130MM of exclusive firm and co-investment opportunitiesDETAILSWhen I assumed management of the portfolio I discovered a collection of good assets that had been assembled on an ad hoc basis. There wasn’t a structure or strategy for portfolio construction or future investing. So I developed a data-driven strategy of disciplined, objective, and proactive opportunity identification and assessment based on market outlook, risk-weighted returns and portfolio construction.It's been fun to dig into the data and dissect it. I analyzed over 200 investments across 8 alternative investment categories, and convert key insights into graphics that intuitively communicated absolute and relative performance as well as trends.Perhaps the greatest challenge is figuring out when to pursue an opportunity and when to pass on it. There are so many investment options available—I’ve reviewed several hundred in the past couple years—that my days are filled with a mix of making quick decisions with incomplete information, digging deeper and finding the best point to say "no,” or the occasional “yes.”Given my background in credit and risk management, I’m also leading the pension-wide Distressed and Credit investment efforts—incredibly interesting in today’s low rate, long expansion environment. And there are many other chances to stretch and grow. It's awesome!

Midland, Michigan, Us

HIGHLIGHTS• Headed debt capital markets, handled treasury efforts on 8 M&A deals, managed over 30 bank relationships, and led corporate finance projects• Directed a cross functional team that executed a $2.0B financing and $1.2B debt exchange, adding $750MM in value to an M&A transaction• Developed a monthly dashboard with 16 KPIs that remains unmodified and in use after nearly 3 yearsDETAILSThis was a project-oriented role focused primarily on capital markets, M&A, and ad hoc analyses. I also spent significant time as a trainer and led treasury recruiting at the University of Chicago, repeatedly delivering top candidates.My highlight achievement was leading a multifunctional team of accountants, lawyers, bankers and tax professionals to structure and execute $2.0B in debt financing and a $1.2B debt exchange for a Reverse Morris Trust (RMT). Not sure what an RMT is? Check it out here: . Basically it's a super cool, extremely complex and highly value additive M&A transaction structure. My segment of the deal delivered more than $750MM in tax efficiencies.Of course there were plenty of other awesome projects. For example, I was part of a small group of senior leaders tasked by two members of the 4-person executive leadership team with developing the growth strategy to take a new product in a new market to $300MM in revenue. We had to come at the challenge from all angles: assessing risks, opportunities, and creative alternatives to drive growth. A few more examples: I led a combined team from Purchasing, Credit and Financial Operations to explore implementing a supply chain finance program. I negotiated the renewal of our core $5.0B credit facility. I did an ad hoc comparative financing analysis for the CFO to assist in a larger negotiation. There were tons of variety, lots of chances to use my skills and always lots of learning along the way.

Midland, Michigan, Us

HIGHLIGHTS• Decreased cash management cost by $820K annually by improving short term borrowing strategy• Transformed business model to better meet business needs, achieving 100% revenue retention while reducing global lease exposure risk by 24%• Co-led global team commissioned by CFO to deliver 3 recommendations to permanently resolve persistent human resources challengesDETAILSOn the funding team my banking and negotiation skills were put to use right away. I was immediately tasked with renewing a 10-figure securitization facility in a compressed time frame. I not only met the deadline but also secured a 36% increase in facility size, locked in better pricing, and increased advance rates by 5%.My favorite part of the deal was that the majority of the advance rate improvement was driven by an innovative foreign receivables structure I created and persuaded our banks to utilize. When I took on the project, a previous facility manager had told me the banks would not agree to increase foreign receivable exposure. There’s nothing like the feeling of accomplishing something very hard, especially when conventional wisdom says it can’t be done in the first place.In time I oversaw or directly managed nearly every funding tool used by the corporation, including: commercial paper, retail bonds, tax exempt bonds, institutional bonds, $1.5B US securitization program, €450MM multi-currency securitization program, leases (operating, leveraged and synthetic), syndicated credit lines, bilateral credit lines, term loans, project finance, and letters of credit. In addition, I worked on a variety M&A deals, advising transaction teams on structuring and post-close capitalization as well as lending expertise to due diligence efforts.

Midland, Michigan, Us

HIGHLIGHTS• Collaborated with global business leaders to generate $50MM in incremental margin by introducing joint short and long term business planning• Designed and implemented global credit process for $1.6B spinout to a private equity firm• Improved process efficiency by 71%, freeing up 1.5 FTE for higher-value work by analyzing ERP data for 76,000 tractions then redesigning work process and system codes structureDETAILSI led teams of 5 to 7 finance professionals responsible for managing trade credit risk on $6B in annual sales during a period of 29% revenue growth. We consistently built and rebuilt high performance teams with the capacity to absorb substantial additional workload. Ultimately I also ran training for the entire 24- to 30-person North America team. Using a data-driven approach has long been my preferred method to evaluate opportunities and develop solutions. There seemed to be endless opportunities to do so as a credit portfolio manager. For example, as the chaos of the credit crisis died down it became clear that we needed to reevaluate the department structure.I was trusted with the sensitive role to evaluate how we stood and recommend a path forward. I created a data-driven staffing model that optimized workload and used quantitative and qualitative factors to clearly show the team should be reduced from 28 to 24. Then we developed a plan to manage staffing down to 24 via attrition and long-lead-time notices. It’s never an easy thing to make those decisions and deliver those messages, but we were able to do so in a way that minimized the impact on the teammates we lost.My favorite project involved analyzing ERP data on over 76,000 orders and redesigning the customer coding process to 6 standard codes that met our risk/reward objectives, rather than hundreds of custom codes. These new procedures increased automated processing from 65% to 90%, and freed up 50 to 70 hours a week to focus on value add activities.

Midland, Michigan, Us

HIGHLIGHTS• Successfully integrated 48 customers from a $30MM acquisition onto standard controls, processes and systems• Recovered $24MM bankruptcy exposure plus interest by working closely with other leaders to leveraged strategic positioning established in jointly developed long term business plan DETAILSI managed a $400MM portfolio of trade receivables during the peak of the credit crisis (exciting!). I partnered closely with our commercial and sales teams, using quantitative and qualitative analyses, to balance risk and reward for both the short and long terms. The pinnacle experience was a year-long process of using strategic, tactical and legal levers to fully recover a $24MM bankruptcy exposure.During this time I was also able to successfully integrate 48 customers into Dow’s corporate credit operations after a bolt on acquisition. This process involved, among other things, working with the business’s general manager to develop portfolio-level and customer-by-customer credit strategies for the transition, establishing new credit limits, integrating customers into our ERP system, harmonizing terms, and rolling out standardized customer service policies and procedures.

Midland, Michigan, Us

This was a fantastic learning experience. I was able to leverage my expertise in banking and third party guarantees to create a pricing model for a $30MM loan guarantee used by one of our portfolio companies.The model provided so much value that the head of Dow Venture Capital nominated me for the company’s second highest employee recognition honor. When he presented me with the award, he mentioned an intern had never before received that level of recognition from the company!

Salt Lake City, Utah, Us

I was deployed by the bank as a change agent to turn around operations and drive strategic growth of a 7-figure profit center. In addition to P&L responsibility, I oversaw operations, sales and retail lending as well as business banking and commercial lending. I designed a branch-wide cross-training program to jumpstart career progression for my team of 10. This not only lifted team morale significantly, it also bolstered our operating and sales results. For example, our retail loan pipeline increased by 300% and customer service scores were consistently at or above 95%.The thing I’m most proud of is that our branch became known as a team that could take on heavy loads of additional work and still deliver top results from our core operating business. At one point senior management had us working on 4 special projects concurrently, whereas almost all other branches had 0 to 1 such project going at a time.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Us

After delivering such dramatic results in so short a period of time as a commercial loan officer, I was asked to take over leadership of a branch with stagnant sales and persistent staff challenges. I accepted and was made the youngest full branch manager in the region.I immediately resolved longstanding conflicts among three employees, each with tenure exceeding my own by over 20 years. This enabled the team to more effectively serve our clients and capture in-branch sales opportunities. We exceeded our first loan campaign sales target for the first time in years and went on to exceed our target objectives for every marketing campaign during my tenure.During my single year leading the office, profitability jumped 15%, turning around a multi-year trend of declining performance. I was quickly promoted and assigned to manage a substantially larger (+50% in assets), strategically located office.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Us

When I took over my portfolio, the Small Business Administration (SBA) loan practice was languishing. I recognized fixing this was an opportunity to really grow volume and margins as well as a chance to develop a valuable skill set. I began learning the complexities of SBA loan structures and requirements right away.I became an expert in SBA lending and the focal point for all SBA loans originated by my office. In less than a year I had revitalized our high margin SBA loan production leading to 223% portfolio growth and driving our office to become the highest loan producer in the region.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Us

I underwrote dozens of loans and called on clients to service existing business and develop new business including cross selling a wide array of banking products. With some mentoring on how to target and research prospects, I developed a marketing plan which resulted in $5.3 million in new loans.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Us

I started in the accounting department of the bank's leasing group booking journal entries for lease payments. Next I was assigned to help a senior loan officer clear hundreds of compliance exceptions on a commercial loan portfolio he had been hired to clean up. I took responsibility for all back office work allowing him to focus on building client relationships. In just 3 months I had the compliance issues under control and shortly thereafter was promoted.

Provo, Ut, Us

I led the operations of a training center that provided live simulations for practicing foreign language and teaching skills. The center delivered these weekly learning opportunities for approximately 2,000 students and 250 instructors. I managed scheduling logistics, executed a 75% expansion in training capacity, and hired and trained a team of 9 training specialists.The biggest challenge was recruiting 200 to 300 volunteers covering over 40 foreign languages to serve on a weekly basis as mock contacts for students. I devised a multi-pronged strategy to address this challenge and within a few months recruitment had increased by over 500% leading to a consistent surplus of volunteers.Prior to my work as a supervisor, I was a training specialist and a Spanish instructor.

Mba, Finance, Economics, International Business

Ba, Global Trade - The Kennedy Center For International Studies