Lessons from Leaders Speaker Series: Gary Smaby

Lessons from Leaders Speaker Series: Gary Smaby  

4 p.m., Indian Wells Theater

Open to the public, no RSVP required.

Parking will be enforced at $6 per vehicle. Purchase parking permit at drive-up kiosk.

Gary Smaby Technology Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist and Philanthropist

In his twenties, Gary Smaby worked as a graphic artist, photographer, and start-up entrepreneur.  Over the next decade, he became an internationally known and oft-quoted Wall Street analyst on the leading edge of science and technology. He later served as a strategic advisor to some of the world’s leading technology companies, including AT& T, IBM, Oracle, Intel, HP and Zenith. In 2001, he became founding managing partner of a seed-stage venture capital firm that launched more than a dozen new technology start-ups and served as president of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association. From 2003-2008, Gary was director of the Ventures Enterprise MBA program at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and later received a one-year appointment as the University’s Director of Collaborative Innovation. From 2009-11, Smaby was a Visiting Scholar/Artist at both the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (CALIT2) at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) and at UC Santa Barbara’s Allosphere Lab. Since 2012 he has made an annual sojourn to UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP) as a visiting Artist-in-Residence. Mr. Smaby is an emeritus board member from numerous non-profit institutions including the Nobel Peace Prize Forum, the Weisman Art Museum, and the Science Museum of Minnesota. He currently serves a board member of the Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center. As managing trustee of Smaby Family Foundation, he is an active philanthropist, supporting innovative visionaries with bold ideas for youth education in the arts, technology, science, entrepreneurship, and peace studies. Smaby is a cum laude graduate of St. Olaf College with a dual major in East Asian Studies and Art.