Thomas Sidney "Tad" Smith, Jr. (born June 1965) is an American businessman, the former president and chief executive officer of

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

. Smith is also an adjunct professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

Stern School of Business The Leonard N. Stern School of Business (also NYU Stern, Stern School of Business, or simply Stern) is the business schools, business school of New York University, a private university, private research university based in New York City. Founded ...

Education

Smith graduated with an AB from the

Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (''abbrev.'' SPIA; formerly the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school provides an array of c ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

in 1987 after completing a 124-page long senior thesis titled "The Philosophical Transformation of Constitutional Privacy." While a student at Princeton, Smith received the R.W. Van de Velde Prize for outstanding junior independent work. He later received an MBA from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate school, graduate business school of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university. Located in Allston, Massachusetts, HBS owns Harvard Business Publishing, which p ...

, where he was a George F. Baker scholar and a Horace W. Goldsmith fellow.

Career

Smith was CEO of the US branch of

Reed Business Information RELX plc (pronounced "Rel-ex") is a British multinational information and analytics company headquartered in London, England. Its businesses provide scientific, technical and medical information and analytics; legal information and analytics; ...

. For five years until 2014, Smith worked for

Cablevision Cablevision Systems Corporation was an American cable television company with systems serving areas surrounding New York City. It was the fifth-largest cable provider and ninth-largest television provider in the United States. Throughout its ex ...

in a variety of executive positions. From February 2014 to March 2015, Smith was president and CEO of New York's

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

, doubling net profits in the second half of that year. In March 2015, Sotheby's announced that Smith would succeed William F. Ruprecht as its president and CEO. Smith's basic salary will be $1.4 million, plus "target annual bonus opportunity will be 200% of his annual base salary", and "long-term incentive award opportunities" in Sotheby's shares. In October 2019, Sotheby's was acquired by

Patrick Drahi Patrick Drahi (; ; ; born 20 August 1963) is a Moroccan–Israeli billionaire magnate and investor with interests in media and telecoms. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of the European-based telecom group Altice. He lives in Swit ...

, and shareholders received $57 per share, with Smith receiving $28 million. In October 2019, Drahi replaced Smith with Charles Stewart, the CFO of Altice USA. Since 1999, Smith has taught at

, where he is an adjunct professor in the finance department, and runs a course entitled, "Strategy and Finance for Technology, Media, and Entertainment Companies".

Personal life

Smith is married to Caroline Mitchell Fitzgibbons, a realtor. They have two children, and live in

Bronxville Bronxville is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County, New York (state), New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the Adminis ...

, New York.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tad 1965 births American chief executives Harvard Business School alumni Living people New York University Stern School of Business faculty People from Bronxville, New York Princeton University alumni Sotheby's people Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumni