Chairman of the Board
Mr. Jack Smith served as the Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of The Sports Authority, Inc., the company he founded in 1987. After reaching one billion dollars in sales and the opening of 100 stores, The Sports Authority completed an IPO on the NYSE in August 1994, raising $290 million. As a public company, the The Sports Authority became one of the most recognized retailers in the 1990s.
By 2000, the company was in 32 states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and had entered Japan with a 50 percent share with a leading retailer in Tokyo. Mr. Smith retired in 2000 to focus on directorships to which he contributed to the growth of these public and private companies. In addition to the retail boards that he served on, Mr. Smith joined the restaurant industry with Darden, Inc. from 1995 to 2010, during which he grew the company from $2 billion to $8 billion. Mr. Smith also served on Fiesta, Inc. as Chairman and helped the company go public on the NASD. Today, Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana are on a fast pace of growth throughout Florida and Texas.