Robert F. Smith
is the founding director and President of Fund II Foundation. Smith’s passion for his Black American heritage and history pervades the Foundation’s mission and spirit.
Inspiring Change Through Fund II Foundation
Experiencing life as a Black man in the U.S. has inspired Smith’s leadership and his efforts to uplift underrepresented communities. He is dedicated to supporting programs and organizations that help improve the lives of the most vulnerable by redressing systemic social, racial and economic inequalities. As Smith advanced through his career, he recognized that his internships and mentors played a significant role in creating opportunities for him. To create similar pathways of opportunity, he and Fund II Foundation work to create onramps for Black Americans and other disadvantaged communities.
“The whole inspiration really comes from an ideological position around how do you liberate the human spirit,” Smith said of his philanthropic philosophy. “I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than the liberated human spirit.”
Smith has helped to facilitate opportunities to liberate the human spirit through Fund II Foundation. In 2016, the Foundation gifted $20 million to Cornell University, Smith’s alma mater. That same year, Smith donated $30 million. The generous contributions helped to fund efforts to recruit and support underrepresented students in STEM fields through scholarships and graduate fellowships. Six years later, Smith contributed another $15 million to Cornell University’s College of Engineering to establish three funds.
In 2019, the Foundation created internXL, under Smith’s leadership. The main purpose of the organization is to increase diversity in the STEM fields by matching leading businesses with diverse internship candidates.
Educational Initiatives
Shortly after establishing internXL, Smith made a historic $34 million gift to Morehouse College to pay off the student loans of the 2019 graduating class. Inspired by the positive impact his donation had, Smith partnered with organizations and education experts to establish Student Freedom Initiative. The Initiative is a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to providing students with the academic, professional and financial resources they need to succeed, while also addressing the crushing burden of student loan debt. In 2020, Smith made a $50 million contribution to match a $50 million donation by Fund II Foundation to endow the nonprofit.
Over the course of the last few years, the Initiative has expanded to serve dozens of institutions across the U.S. In 2021, the Initiative launched its first cohort with nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), providing mentoring, tutoring, targeted capacity-building and access to paid internships, as well as an income-based loan alternative for junior and senior STEM majors. Internships for Student Freedom Initiative are provided by Fund II Foundation’s flagship internXL program.
Professional Highlights
Smith is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners (Vista), a leading global investment firm. Since the company’s founding in 2000, Smith has directed the firm’s investment strategy, decisions, governance and investor relations. Smith began as an engineer, which is a dream he realized during his internship at Bell Labs. He started this internship opportunity while he was still in high school and continued to intern for the lab during his summers home from Cornell University. In 1985, he graduated with a B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University.
Following his undergraduate studies, he worked as an engineer for various companies, including Kraft General Foods, where he earned four patents. In 1994, Smith earned his MBA from Columbia Business School. Following graduate school, he worked in technology investment banking for Goldman Sachs. In his time at the company, Smith oversaw mergers and acquisitions at tech giants like Apple, Yahoo! and Texas Instruments. He worked for Goldman Sachs until 2000, when he left to create Vista.
At the 2015 commencement for the American University School of International Service, Smith explained his philosophy of success as a race run against oneself. Smith said, “Running your own race demands trusting yourself even when others don’t.” He went on to explain that his own family, friends and colleagues warned him first against switching his career from engineering to investment banking and then later against focusing his new investment firm solely on enterprise software, data and technology-enabled businesses. But Smith persisted in his own race. “To distinguish yourself today, you have to run toward change, not away from it. You have to run your own race and embrace the rapid change that characterizes our modern world.”
Smith’s Awards, Honors and Memberships
Throughout the years, Smith’s industry insights, accomplishments and philanthropy have been widely recognized and celebrated. In 2016, he was honored with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Chair’s Award. The next year, Forbes listed Smith as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds. Several years later, he received the President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy. Additionally, Smith was named to TIME100’s Most Influential People of 2020 list. Smith also received theGrio Philanthropy Award in 2022 and was an honoree of the George H.W. Bush Points of Light Awards in 2023.
Additionally, Smith was the first Black American to sign the Giving Pledge, a commitment to contribute the majority of his wealth to philanthropic causes. He also serves as Chairman of the Carnegie Hall Board of Trustees. Smith is also a member of the Columbia Business School Board of Overseers, a member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, a Board Member of the Business Roundtable and a Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of NAF.
Most notably, Smith co-founded Southern Communities Initiative. He leads the Southern Communities Initiative alongside Dan Schulman (CEO of PayPal) and Rich Lesser (Global Chair of Boston Consulting Group). The Initiative is an organization that is dedicated to accelerating racial equity in six Southern U.S. communities that are home to more than half of all Black Americans.
Learn more about Smith on his website, and connect with him on Facebook, Twitter (X), YouTube and Instagram.
