Ryan Smith

Ryan is a marketer, strategic thinker, and golfer, living in Austin, TX. Although he misses his hometown of Dallas, Texas, he loves the state of Texas and is happy to be closer to the University of Texas Longhorns.

Fresh out of his undergraduate degree at Southwestern University, Ryan opened his career at Dell, answering phones as a consumer sales rep and sales manager. He was also on-site for the setup and launch of two call centers, grooming sales agents and managers in their new roles.

Ryan left Dell for the full-time MBA program at the University of Texas. While there, he found an outlet for his passion for golf, leading the MBA Golf Association and running tournaments, beginner lessons, and social events.

After the MBA in Marketing in 2005, Ryan worked in Customer Relationship Management consulting for IBM and provided software, training, and marketing solutions. Ryan then transitioned to Blockbuster, running one loyalty marketing program and two subscription programs on a national level, covering everything from strategy, budgeting, forecasting, communication, operations, and IT.

While at Blockbuster, Ryan's wife (Katy) was diagnosed with an aggressive and advanced form of adrenal cancer. Ryan left his job at Blockbuster to become a part-time caregiver. Part-time turned into full-time, and Katy passed away in July 2010. While Ryan was a caregiver, he started a residential real estate brokerage and ran that full-time for 3 years.

Ryan was then ready to jump back into his other career of loyalty marketing. Ryan joined NetSpend in 2012 in the retention marketing group and is making progress in improving consumer communications post-acquisition.

More importantly, Ryan was very lucky to find a companion for life and was engaged in February 2012. Ryan and Laura are planning a wedding for January 2013 and are already looking forward to the relaxation of the honeymoon.

Throughout, Ryan has always enjoyed his main hobby of golf, traveling to California, Oregon, Hawaii, and Scotland to play some of the best courses in the world, but is more than happy at the public courses in the Dallas and Austin areas and enjoys the camaraderie of playing golf and competing against friends. Ryan is also an avid fan of the Texas Rangers and Dallas Mavericks and enjoys reading about business, philosophy, and constant self-improvement.