Overview

Gender

male

Investor Type

Investment Partner

Stephen K. Smith has more than two decades of experience as a venture capital investor and equity analyst covering technology companies. He has successful investment track records in both public equity and private venture capital sectors.

Prior to joining Masthead, Mr. Smith spent sixteen years as a top-ranked Wall Street analyst for PaineWebber, Inc. Mr. Smith was rated as a top analyst of technology stocks, holding a position on the Institutional Investor All Star Research Team for ten years, based on surveys of top technology fund managers. He was twice voted the #1 analyst of computer stocks by the Wall Street Journal.

As head of the technology research team at PaineWebber, Mr. Smith was also charged with identifying prospects, conducting due diligence, positioning and marketing institutional private placements, initial public offerings, secondary offerings, mergers and acquisitions.

Prior to working at PaineWebber, Mr. Smith spent six years in the computer industry, first as a systems engineer with British computer manufacturer ICL, and then with the management consulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, where he consulted to the financial services industry on technology-related issues.

Mr. Smith holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a First Class Honors Degree in Computer Science from Brighton Polytechnic University in England. He currently serves on the boards Scanbuy and Packet Design, all Masthead portfolio companies.

Other boards Mr. Smith has served on for Masthead include Bitpipe (acquired by TechTarget in December 2004), Ecount (acquired by Citigroup in March 2007) and Tizor Systems (acquired by Netezza in February 2009). He was also responsible for Masthead's investments in Sombasa Media (acquired by About.com in March 2000) and Sychip (acquired by Murata Manufacturing in April 2006).

He is on the board of the Maine Technology Institute and recently served as Chairman of Maine's Small Enterprise Growth Fund. Mr. Smith is an active member of CommonAngels, a Boston-based group of active angel investors who are mostly founders of successful New England high technology companies.