BRIAN SMITH

EXECUTIVE COACH & PARTNER

Brian is a senior executive with experience in demanding complex business situations including start-ups, restructuring, turnarounds, acquisitions, rapid expansion and growth. He is a strong, effective leader attuned to service economy businesses including financial and retail services with ability to deliver consistent revenue growth as well as EBIT and stock growth. Brian Smith is a founding member of Life Equity, LLC, a leading Life Settlement Company. In this role, Brian secured over $1 billion of financing from institutions including Berkshire Hathaway, Bear Stearns, JP Morgan and Mizuho Bank. He also negotiated the sale of majority interest to Kohlberg & Co., in 2011. Prior to founding Life Equity, Brian was the President and COO of Cole National Corporation, a $1.1 billion company operating over 3,400 specialty retail locations including 800 Things Remembered personalized gift stores located in regional malls, and 2,600 optical locations (corporate and franchised in North America and Europe). Total system wide revenues of $1.6 billion. Cole National operated the second largest network of optical manufacturing labs in the United States. The corporation had over 20,000 full and part-time employees.

Brian earned both his MBA (Accounting & Finance) and Bachelor of Science (Marketing) Degrees from Cornell University.