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PrintI am Tulsa - Mark Smith
Owner of ChartMark Investments and member of Tulsa's Young Professionals.
The smell of freshly painted walls hits him as he walks into the newly constructed office building. After passing through the gold-colored revolving door and taking a quick ride on the elevator to the fifth floor, Mark Smith walks into his office in the Utica Place Office Tower to start his day.
Even with all the elegance surrounding him at Utica Place and the prestige associated with owning a business that is actually growing in an unstable economy, after a quick chat with Smith, it is evident that he is a small-town Oklahoman at heart. Polite and personable, Smith was raised in Pawhuska, Okla., where he graduated high school with 89 other students. These traits came in handy in 2001 when Smith launched his company, ChartMark Investments, a money management firm.
“A place like Tulsa lends itself very well to this business, because it is a relationship business,” Smith says. “Tulsa specifically is a place where people do business based on relationships. It’s a city, but it also has a small-town feel to it.”
Smith says that in other cities, his line of work can quickly become a numbers game.
“Here, it’s more about people,” he says.
When the weather is nice, Smith takes his laptop out on his office’s fifth-floor balcony and surveys the city he has grown to love. After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, Smith worked for the Federal Reserve Bank in Kansas City for a year until he moved back to Tulsa to work at Morgan Stanley as a financial adviser and associate vice president for seven years.
After less than a decade, Smith started ChartMark Investments with his uncle, John Clerico. Since then, the business has remained one based on family ties. Smith’s brother, E.J. Smith, also works for the company as a certified financial planner.
Hiring family members, in Smith’s case, can almost be seen as inevitable. After all, he is a member of a large family that includes 27 first cousins (he is the youngest). As that family continues to grow, Smith has been working to make Tulsa a better place to live for those future generations.
Smith began that vision when he joined Tulsa’s Young Professionals (TYPros) in its early years. Soon after joining, he became a part of the TYPros board, known as the Leadership Team, which was responsible for bringing the T-Town Trolley to Tulsa and initiating the Intern in Tulsa program. He also ran the Entrepreneurship/Business Development Crew for more than two years with TYPros.
Smith hopes that continuing to make changes like these in Tulsa will attract more young people to the city.
“Part of what we need in Tulsa is outside perspective — people who have traveled a bit and conducted business outside the city, people who relocate here,” he says. “We need people that bring outside talent and outside thought processes back to Tulsa so that we can incorporate those. If you only grew up here and have never left, you don’t really bring much perspective to it. Yes, you’re loyal, but you don’t have that outside perspective.”
Smith enjoys traveling and finds ways to do business and volunteer for organizations outside of Tulsa. Of course, during this time of year, Smith has one driving force that determines where he will be traveling: football.
“During the fall, I’m pretty much wherever OU is,” he says.
I am dedicated to Tulsa because I live and own a business in Tulsa, so naturally I want it to be the best it possibly can be. I see so much unleashed potential in this city for the future. People, natural resources, central location, four seasons, cost of living and increasing diversity are all strengths that Tulsa can build on.
I am a member of Tulsa's Young Professionals because I am one! More importantly, I have been involved with TYPros from almost the beginning. I have served on the Leadership Team and I ran the Entrepreneurship/Business Development Crew for over two years. As a business owner myself, I know I will be competing with other cities for talent for the rest of my career. When I go out to compete for that talent, I want Tulsa to be an asset, not a liability. The mission of TYPros is just that: to make Tulsa an asset for young professionals.
I am passionate about entrepreneurship. In my view, entrepreneurs are the risk takers, the innovators who make progress possible. I especially admire the ones who not only have an idea but are also able to effectively turn the idea into a business. Having creative ideas and being able to run a business are very different skill sets. Those who can do both are very special people — and make an exciting city. That is why I push everyone that will listen to encourage entrepreneurship in Tulsa.
I am looking forward to making Tulsa a “cool” city. Economic development, downtown and river development and creating as many recreational opportunities as possible are the keys to attracting young people and hopefully mature people as well.
I am proudest of launching ChartMark Investments Inc. a month before 9/11 after an eight-year career with a major Wall Street firm. As a boutique investment and financial-coaching firm beginning just before the first major bear market of the decade — and now having gone through the current financial crisis — it has obviously been challenging. But the fact that we are still out there growing is a great accomplishment. Challenges make us better in the long run. I am proud of the company, our people and the value we create for our clients.
I am an asset to Tulsa because we, as young professionals, are important to Tulsa because we are the future. And, without a future, no city, company or country, for that matter, really has a present because there is no hope. On the other hand, when you have a city with a vibrant, energetic young-professional population, the future is exciting and motivating!
