LLB (UP) LLM (UP) IDP-C (INSEAD, France)
Smit has more than thirty years international commercial experience in International Banking, Corporate Finance, General Commerce and Law. He has worked in diverse environments including Multinational, International Development Multilateral Organisations and Private Legal Practice across both developed and emerging markets, serving in various capacities from Professional Advisory to Senior Executive including Group CEO.
He is a former Senior Special Advisor to the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation and a former member of its Global Client Leadership Group and Principal Investment Officer where he focused on unlocking unique investment and development opportunities globally across various sectors, including the management of various complexities in key investments.
Prior to joining the World Bank Group, Smit was the Managing Executive for Nedbank Group’s Rest of Africa Investments, which was responsible for the Group’s expansion (M&A), commercial affairs and post-investment implementation of operational turn-around strategies across emerging markets. Smit was also part of the senior management team at PricewaterhouseCoopers – Tax and Legal Services; Corporate Finance (M&A) business development, and formerly practised commercial law. At the start of his career he gained experience in the family-owned airline and hospitality industries.
Smit has widely acknowledged skills in building and managing strategic relations; creative thinking in developing and delivering high impact strategies and content for growth and change; and negotiating and mediating complex situations including international investment disputes at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Washington, USA) and the ICC – International Court of Arbitration (Paris, France). As guest lecturer, Smit recently taught a programme he developed entitled “Mediation as Strategic Conflict and Complexity Resolution Enabler” for an Erasmus programme in Europe.
Smit is a qualified international lawyer/advocate and certified mediator (UK). He holds LLB (Law), LLM (International Taxation) degrees, and an International Director including Corporate Governance Certification from INSEAD, France. Through participation in various executive programmes, Smit is an alumnus of various leading business schools and universities including Harvard (USA); Oxford (UK); INSEAD (France); and Singularity (USA).
