110
| Business World Magazine |
September 2012
“
Combining these natural strengths with our
flexible capital structure, our effective strat-
egy, and our sustainable operating model, we
have created – and will continue to create –
sustained and sustainable excellence.”
Smith is an industry veteran who started
his career at the Dow Chemical Company.
His first job was as a systems analyst but over
the course of a 20 year career he worked his
way up through a wide array of departments
and roles, both domestically and overseas.
From there, he moved into the power indus-
try, where he worked as the Director, Presi-
dent and COO of Ballard Power Systems.
After three years with Ballard, and a cou-
ple more with a small start up called Nxt-
Phase, Smith opted to retire. His retirement
lasted “almost six months,” he says, before he
was recruited by Apollo Management to run
a company called Resolution Performance
Products – a company in need of a shift in
strategic direction. Working with the CEO