Blair Smith on Clubhouse

Bio

Blair C. Smith is Senior Director of the Center for Financial Markets at the Milken Institute, with more than 20 years of financial services and captial markets experience. He created the Inclusive Capitalism Program and leads the Center’s strategic innovative financing initiatives, to enhance economic and social impact.  Mr. Smith also leads the Institute's work on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Asset Management, as well as Impact Investment including CDFIs, MDIs and Opportunity Zone Funds.

Mr. Smith was the Founder and CEO of Promethean AB Strategies LLC, a strategic consultancy focused on helping diverse led Asset Management firms achieve their goals.

He is the former Chief Investment Officer for the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation, a CDFI (Community Development Financial Institution)

Mr. Smith was responsible for co-managing a $5.2 billion Emerging Manager investment portfolio, within the State of New York Common Retirement Fund. The program has both traditional and alternative asset class strategies including: real estate, private equity, public equity, hedge funds and opportunistic. He actively evaluated and conducted research for new investment vehicles/platforms that could strategically implement the long-term goals of the portfolio and provide risk adjusted returns.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Smith served for over 10 years as a Relationship Manager with both the Greenwich, Connecticut and New York City Wealth Management teams at various top tier banks.  

Mr. Smith received his M.B.A. in Finance from Columbia University and a B.S. in Journalism from Morgan State University (an HBCU) where he was a 2 year ROTC scholar.

He is a member of the Economic Club of Washington FC, the Real Estate Executive Council and is a 2019 Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) Finance Catalyst recipient. He has been featured in Alternative Investments and Pension and Investments magazine discussing ESG and D,E & I in Asset Management.

Mr. Smith was appointed an adjunct professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He is on the Board of the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, the Baltimore Afro-American Newspapers and the Afro Charities.