ADAM LORENZO SMITH
Biography
In 2003, Mayor Shirley Franklin appointed Adam L. Smith to serve on her Cabinet as the City of Atlanta’s (the “City”) Chief Procurement Officer to oversee its procurement department. Since his appointment, Mr. Smith has embarked on an ambitious plan to reorganize and revitalize the department and the City’s procurement process, including revising the procurement code and streamlining the procurement process. Among his other duties, Mr. Smith is responsible for all purchasing matters, including the overhaul of the City’s water and sewer projects and expansion projects at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport amounting to billions of dollars in public contracts. In line with Mayor Franklin’s stated objective of providing “Best in Class” City-wide services, Mr. Smith’s goal is to transform the Department of Procurement into one of the country’s premier purchasing agencies.
Prior to joining the City, Mr. Smith served as a partner in the Business Law Group of the national law firm, Holland & Knight LLP, where he practiced in the area of corporate law. While at Holland & Knight LLP, Mr. Smith served as co-chair of the firm-wide African Nations Initiative, whose mission was to examine the opportunities for the firm to serve the people and governments of Africa, and the people, companies and organizations interested in or currently doing business in and from Africa.
Mr. Smith is the co-author of a published article on the basic federal disclosure reporting requirements for foreign investors doing business in the United States: Adam Lorenzo Smith and Kenneth A. Cutshaw, Foreign Entry into the Booming U. S. Economy: A Primer on Basic Federal Disclosure and Reporting Requirements for Foreign Investors in the U. S., Corporate Counsel’s International Adviser, September 1, 2000, at 184-02.
He is an active alumnus and a Charter Member of The American Council of Young Political Leaders (“ACYPL”), under whose auspices he completed a study tour of the Republic of the Philippines in December 2004. For the ACYPL exchange program in the spring of 2005, Mr. Smith also served as a state host for a delegation from the Philippines, which included members of the National Movement of Young Legislators. In May 2007, Mr. Smith was selected to serve as an ACYPL escort for the delegation study tour to the Republic of South Korea.
Mr. Smith is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, Leadership Atlanta, and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing. He is also a Certified Professional Public Buyer (“CPPB”), a designation issued by the Universal Public Purchasing Certification Council.
His participation in the community is extensive. Mr. Smith currently serves on the Board of Trustees of The Children’s School in Atlanta. He is a member of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation Board of Visitors and serves as a board member for The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law; The Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc. Advisory Board; and he is a Trustee on the board of Atlanta’s historic Friendship Baptist Church. Mr. Smith has served as chairman of the City of Atlanta’s Board of Ethics and the Fulton County, Atlanta, Georgia, Board of Registration and Elections; he also served as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority (Grady Memorial Hospital), where he served as chairman of the Legal, Governmental Affairs and Bylaws committees. Mr. Smith has also lectured on medical-legal issues for the Morehouse School of Medicine Family Practice Residency Program. He is a Life Member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
He received his B. A., cum laude, from Morehouse College in 1986; M.P.H. from the Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, in 1989; and J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992. At Morehouse, Mr. Smith served as president of his Sophomore and Junior Classes and president of the Student Government Association. At Georgetown, he was named the 1992 B.N.A. Award Recipient for academic achievement, and he served as the administrative editor for The Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.
Mr. Smith, a native of Nashville, Tennessee, is the proud father of Aria Leah, a student at The Children’s School in Atlanta.