Geoff Smart

Dr. Geoff Smart is the Chairman & Founder of ghSMART.

Founded in 1995, ghSMART helps Fortune 500 CEOs & boards, billionaire entrepreneurs, and heads of state to confidently achieve their goals through hiring, developing, and leading talented teams.

ghSMART serves clients globally from its 12 offices in North America and Europe.

For three consecutive years, Forbes named ghSMART the best management consulting firm in its industry segment, based on thousands of surveys of business leaders. The firm was named one of the world’s top firms in the book The Art of Managing Professional Services. ghSMART is the subject of two Harvard Business School Cases, titled “ghSMART & Co.: Pioneering in Professional Services.”

ghSMART’s Credo begins, “We exist to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world.”

The firm is known for offering extraordinarily talented professionals an unparalleled professional development experience, and a work culture characterized by impact, freedom, generosity & gratitude, transparency, and meritocracy. Vault ranked ghSMART the #1 management consulting firm in its 2021 study of “Best Companies to Work for” in the areas of overall employee satisfaction, challenging work, and client interaction. And the firm placed in the top 5 firms in 7 additional categories related to compensation, mobility, and work-life balance.

ghSMART shares its knowledge about leadership with the world. The firm has published three bestselling books. Who: The A Method for Hiring (Smart & Street) is a New York Times bestseller that is currently ranked #1 on Amazon.com on the topic of hiring talented teams. Shanghai Daily named Who a “Top 5 Business Book in China,” Globe and Mail named it the “#1 Best Business Book of the Year,” and the book was also listed in the 2015 Inc. Magazine article, “19 of the Best Books Written by Super‐Successful CEOs.” Power Score: Your Formula for Leadership Success (Smart, Street, and Foster) is a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and appeared on an international newspaper’s list of “The 10 Best Business Books of 2015.” The CEO Next Door (Botelho & Powell) is a critically‐acclaimed New York Times bestseller.

In addition, Dr. Smart published Leadocracy: Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government, a New York Times bestseller which won the IPPY Award and the Axiom Book Award for #1 Best Business Book of the Year. In the 1990s, Dr. Smart co‐created the Topgrading brand for talent management. He earned a B.A. in Economics with honors from Northwestern University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where he was a student of management guru Peter F. Drucker.

ghSMART makes an impact in the broader community. Dr. Smart founded The Leaders Initiative™ to inspire private sector leaders to work in government, which evolved into the Colorado Governors Fellowship Program. Dr. Smart has personally advised four sitting U.S. Governors, a U.S. Senator, White House Fellows, world leaders in education, defense, and public health, and the President of the World Bank. ghSMART colleagues donate hundreds of hours per year to advising leaders who make the world a better place.