The Five

I was introduced to J. Mike Smith a couple of years ago through a mutual friend. And boy, am I glad I was. A business leadership, career and team coach, devoted dad and recovering Foursquare addict, J. Mike’s pragmatic optimism around life is infectious. We’re so happy he’s agreed to share his writings on THE FIVE. You can view his articles here.

J. Mike Smith is a senior consultant with over 25 years of business experience, and the President and Principal of his consulting practice known as Back West, Inc. Mike’s work background spans industries including financial services, high tech, biotech, and wholesale distribution. His consulting practice is focused in two areas – executive, career and new hire / critical hire coaching with individuals, and work with leadership teams (team building) and start-up teams (team start-up and team quick starts.)

Representative clients range from start-ups and smaller companies such as Orexigen Therapeutics and Asia Alternatives Management LLC, mid-size companies such as Gilead Sciences, Inc., SVB Group (Silicon Valley Bank), Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Cypress Semiconductor and Fortune 500-type companies such as Genentech, AT&T, and Visa. Clients have also included non-profit / not-for-profit organizations such as the Robert Toigo Foundation, SRI International, Inc. and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Smith held corporate roles including as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources with McKesson’s $13B pharmaceutical distribution business, a Director of Human Resources for Chiron Corporation, a Principal and Director of Human Resources for Fluid, Inc., and as a Principal and senior HR practitioner with Barclays Global Investors (now owned by BlackRock, Inc.), a San Francisco-based asset management company and formerly the world’s largest money manager.

 Mike’s formal training and background includes work in the areas of coaching, talent assessment and competency development, succession planning, individual and group facilitation, conflict resolution and instructional design and delivery. Mike’s first post-graduate position was at the University of Southern California serving on the staff and faculty, and where he designed and implemented his initial competency based selection system. During his career he has worked with or been trained by such leading organizational practitioners as Jack Hawley, John Jones, Edward Yager and Wayne Brockbank.

Mike has presented at groups such as BIO (the Biotechnology Industry Organization), the Northern California Human Resources Association, and the Bay Area OD Network. He authors a blog Life Back West, covering topics of interest to organizational effectiveness practitioners. He is a member of various professional organizations including the Professional Coaches and Mentors Association, and the International Coach Federation. Mike has had a white paper titled “The Advantage of High Performing Virtual Teams in Early Drug Stage Development” published which is based on his work with Dr. Jo Whitehouse with early stage start-up teams.

 Mike has a B.A. in the Program in Urban and Regional Government and Political Science from Willamette University and a M.Ed. in College Student Services Administration from Oregon State University. He currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Bay Area Discovery Museum, was formerly on the Board of Trustees for his son’s preschool, The Little School, in San Francisco, where he and his family reside. Road biking (Mike’s completed the SF to LA AIDS Ride/LifeCycle 7 times), following National League baseball and cooking take up his time when he’s not enjoying parenting.