Tom Smith
Biography
As Executive Managing Director of the Mason Wells Buyout Funds, Mr. Smith is responsible for the day-to-day investment activities, including the management of new investment activities and the oversight of portfolio development efforts. Additionally, he is involved in initiating investment opportunities, structuring and negotiating transactions, serving on the Boards of Directors of portfolio companies, working with portfolio company management teams to create shareholder value, and arranging for the disposition of investments. Mr. Smith is a member of the investment committee of each Mason Wells Buyout Fund and Co-Chairman of the Investment Committees of Mason Wells Buyout Fund IV and V.
Mr. Smith also serves as President and Chairman of the Board of Mason Wells, Inc., the firm’s management company, and is responsible for the overall administration of the firm.
Mr. Smith has over 28 years of experience in private equity investing in middle-market buyouts. He joined Marshall & Ilsley Bank’s private equity arm in 1991 after spending six years in the investment banking businesses at Robert W. Baird & Co. and Smith Barney, where he was involved in a wide range of middle-market corporate finance and merger and acquisition transactions. Mr. Smith was part of the team that spun out of Marshall & Ilsley in 1998 to form Mason Wells.
Mr. Smith holds a Master of Management degree from Northwestern University’s J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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