New position: Managing director, branch manager, Sterne, Agee & Leach, St. Petersburg. Previous position: Vice president, complex manager, Wachovia Securities, Tampa
By FRED W. WRIGHT JR.
Published June 28, 2004
Clark Smith said he is starting from scratch as he builds a retail operation for Sterne, Agee & Leach in St. Petersburg, a first for the financial services company.
"My responsibility is to hire experienced financial advisers and supervise them," he said. He expects to hire 15 to 20 financial advisers and a support staff of eight to 10 people in the next year, with a total of about 30 employees in two years, "and then, a little bit later, expand into Sarasota."
The branch will work with private clients and companies, providing a broad range of investment options from cash management to lending and financial planning. There also will be a satellite office in Tampa, Smith said. Sterne, Agee & Leach has an institutional office in St. Petersburg that opened earlier this year, Smith said.
The investment company has headquarters in Birmingham, Ala., and offices in 11 southern states plus New York state.
Smith comes to Sterne, Agee & Leach after 10 years with Wachovia Securities. He started with Prudential Securities, then stayed on when the two firms merged. He had worked for the companies in Little Rock, Ark., St. Louis and Memphis, and had been in St. Petersburg for just 18 months before joining Sterne, Agee & Leach.
A native of Fleetwood, Pa., Smith earned a bachelor's degree in government in 1988 at Cornell University. While at Cornell, he joined the university's ROTC program. Upon graduation, he spent six years on active duty in the Navy.
"I really had planned to be a naval aviator," Smith said. "It was the time of (the film) An Officer and a Gentleman. But I failed the flight physical because of allergies and sinus problems."
His duty in the Navy included serving as second in command of the USS Constitution, based in Boston. Known as "Old Ironsides" for its combat victories during the War of 1812, the ship celebrated its 200th anniversary while Smith was on duty, in 1997. "That was very special duty," he said. "I got to meet lots of dignitaries and VIPs."
Smith was in charge of the ship's daily routine, overseeing about 60 on-duty naval personnel and another 50 or so shipwrights - federal employees doing continuous woodwork and maintenance on the ship.
"It's considered the honorary flagship of the U.S. Navy," Smith said. "It was a lot of fun. You learn your American history while there. We'd do a seminar a week. We'd talk about how she was built.
"She was like a Pentium 4 (chip) as far as technology goes when she was built, like the best (computer) chip from Intel."
Smith's other duty in the Navy was aboard the USS Concord, a supply ship, and then the USS Stump, a destroyer, during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Smith was weapons officer aboard both ships and was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. He left active duty in 1994, followed by five years in the Naval Reserve.
While in the Navy, Smith said he began to explore the stock market and investments. "My frat brothers at Cornell all wound up on Wall Street,"he said. "I decided that sounded pretty good.
"I just like helping people," he added, "and working with people. That's pretty much our job as financial advisers - solving problems and helping people with their investments."
Now, as a supervisor of financial advisers, Smith said he still gets "excited to really help coach and train my people and improve their quality of life and (that of) their clients and ensure ethical business standards."
Smith, 38, and his wife, Anne, have two children - Cole, 7, and Claire, 5. They live in St. Petersburg.
Smith said that art and painting are "our passion." He and his wife plan to "slowly start putting our weekends into painting and drawing" with hopes of someday making art a possible career.
That's partly why Smith said he is in Florida. "I love palm trees," he said. "I could draw palm trees all day. It's the most relaxing thing you can do. They're an easy draw."
