Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> January 24, 2005
ROBERT W. SMILEY JR. is the Founder, Chairman of the Board and a
Managing Director of The Benefit Capital Companies, a national group of
merchant banking and financial advisory firms headquartered in
southeastern Nevada, with offices in Irvine, Los Angeles, New York,
Dallas and Honolulu. His principal functions include the implementation
of management and employee buyouts using employee stock ownership plans
(ESOPs) and other tax advantaged financing techniques. Mr. Smiley has
been involved as a principal, consultant or advisor to over $5 billion
in successful transactions in diverse industries over the past 25 years.
He is a member of the management team of Benefit Capital Partners, which
provides equity financing for management, employee and other buyouts,
and brings substantial experience to these transactions. Mr. Smiley is a
Founder and past President of The ESOP Association, a nonprofit trade
association for ESOP companies with over 2,000 current members and a
full-time Washington, DC, staff. The Association promotes cooperation
among government, industry and the professions involved with ESOPs. Mr.
Smiley continues as a lifetime honorary member of the Board of
Governors, and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Legislation and
Regulatory Issues. He is also a director of the National Center for
Employee Ownership and a founding editor of and contributing author to
its flagship publication, The Journal of Employee Ownership Law and
Finance. He is also a former Trustee of The Employee Ownership
Foundation. Mr. Smiley was invited to testify before the Committee on
Finance of the United States Senate in regard to pension legislation
subsequently adopted by the U.S. Congress. He has also been invited to
testify before state legislatures on pension matters. In recognition of
his contribution to pension policy in the United States, he received the
President's Special Achievement Award from the President's Commission on
Pension Policy. Mr. Smiley is a frequent speaker and author on topics of
corporate finance involving management and employee buyouts using tax
advantaged financing techniques. He is the senior editor and a co-author
of Employee Stock Ownership Plans: ESOP Planning, Financing,
Implementation, Law and Taxation published since 1989; the latest
edition to be published mid-2005. Mr. Smiley has served on the faculty
of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension. He served
as a Trustee of the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, for
nine years. Mr. Smiley received his AB in Economics from Stanford
University and an LLB from LaSalle University, Chicago. Prior to
entering Stanford he served a tour of duty in the United States Navy. He
is a current member of the State Bar of California and the American Bar
Association. He is listed in Who's Who in America. He has served as a
director for a number of companies, both public and private. Profile
and give us a picture of the business at the present time?
Mr. Smiley: We completed our first employee stock ownership
