Born: Boise, Idaho — 1943
Caldwell, Idaho — 1945-1961
K-12 education in Caldwell, Idaho, public schools
Graduate Caldwell High School — 1961
Student Body President
University of the Americas
Mexico City Mexico — 1961-1962
Spanish fluency
University of Colorado (Boulder) — 1962-1965
B.A. Political Science — 1965
(History Minor)
President: Acacia Fraternity
Graduate: Robert LeFevre Freedom School, Larkspur, Colorado
President: Young Americans for Freedom
Chairman: Colorado Students for Goldwater
Columnist: The Colorado Conservative
Moscow, Idaho — 1965-1968
J.D. University of Idaho — 1968
Assistant Attorney General
State of Idaho — 1968-1969
Legislative Assistant U.S.
Congressman James A. McClure — 1969-1970
Treasurer
McClure for U.S. Senate — 1972
Founder and President
DeRand Corporation of America 1970-1992
DeRand Corporation of America was a holding company with several subsidiary corporations engaged in brokerage sales for securities, investment banking, life insurance and financial planning. These activities involved a fully registered broker dealer with the National Association of Securities Dealers (today FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Smith has been a registered investment professional since 1970.
During this period of time, Mr. Smith and his companies have been involved in raising more than one billion dollars to finance countless business enterprises. He financed McCaw Communications in the cable television business in the 1980’s helping grow McCaw from 83 rd in size to 20 th and in 1987 McCaw sold their cable division to Jack Kent Cooke for $800 million dollars.
Also, during this time, Mr. Smith served as Regional Vice President for Western Reserve Life of Ohio and the Pioneer Funds of Boston(4 th oldest mutual fund company in America). He served in these positions for more than 16 years.
In the ’90s Mr. Smith founded Telecom Towers Inc. in Arlington, Virginia. Telecom was one of the largest independent cell tower companies in America. The company sold to American Tower Corporation (NYSE) in 1999 for $187 million dollars.
In 2002, Mr. Smith founded Insite Mediacom LLC, a communications and marketing company engaged in a wide variety of activities including billboards in 7 South Eastern States. The company also holds the bus bench franchise for the City of Los Angeles. Mr. Smith serves on the Board of Directors.
All of this involves more than 45 years experience in investment banking and capital management.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Mr. Smith served as Trustee of the Reason Foundation. He left to form the Jeffersonian Foundation, a 501(c)3 dedicated to Social Security Reform. With Peter Ferrara, he co-authored the book STOP THE RAID concerning Social Security reform.