He is currently chairman of the board of Home Properties, a multifamily real estate investment trust (REIT) with operations primarily along the East Coast of the United States, and was formerly chair of the compensation committee, chair of the governance committee, and lead director. Smith has served as president of the Risk Theory Society, president of the Financial Management Association National Honor Society, vice president for Global Services of the Financial Management Association International, vice president of the International Economics and Finance Society, a member of the board of advisors of the International Association of Financial Engineers, and a member of the board of directors of the Financial Management Association and the Southern Finance Association. Students in the Executive MBA Program have given him their Superior Teaching Award 21 times; students in the MBA Program have given him their Superior Teaching Award 16 times. In 2003, he received the FMA Fellows Award by the Financial Management Association International. He was named Distinguished Scholar by the Southern Finance Association in 2000, and Distinguished International Visiting Scholar by the British Accounting Association in 1991. In 1986, he was given the first Special Award for a Perfect Teaching Rating by the School, in 1983, he was chosen a University Mentor in recognition of his scholarship and teaching.
Professor Smith has research interests in the fields of corporate financial policy, derivative securities and financial intermediation. He has published 16 books and over 90 articles in leading finance and economics journals. He is an advisory editor of the Journal of Financial Economics; an associate editor of the Journal of Risk and Insurance, Financial Practice and Education, the Review of International Economics, the Journal of Financial Services Research, the Journal of Derivatives, and the Journal of Financial Research; a member of the editorial board of the Review of International Economics; and a member of the advisory board of the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, The Financier, Contemporary Finance Digest, and The Arbitrageur. His paper, “Trading Cost for Listed Options: The Implications for Market Efficiency” (with Susan M. Phillips), was awarded the Pomerance Prize for Excellence in Options Research by the Chicago Board Options Exchange for 1980; his paper, “On the Convergence of Insurance and Finance Research,” was awarded the Alpha Kappa Psi-Spangler Award by the American Risk and Insurance Association for 1996.
Financial Economics