Joseph C. Smith is the founder and CEO of 1754 Properties LLC, an institutional real estate investment firm focused primarily on owning and repositioning hotels properties. Prior to founding 1754, Mr. Smith was a founding principal of Glenmont Capital Management LLC, an institutional real estate private equity firm which began in 2001 and consummated over $1.5 billion in assets. Over 2/3 of Glenmont’s assets were hotel properties. Before Glenmont, Mr. Smith was at Deutsche Bank / Bankers Trust, where he was involved in several hundred million of both real estate debt and private equity investments in properties primarily around the United States, including acquisitions of distressed debt encumbered by real estate. Prior to his time at Deutsche Bank, Mr. Smith was an investment banker in the hospitality group of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (formerly Montgomery Securities), where he worked on more than 30 hotel transactions representing more than $3 billion. His experience includes transactions in mergers and acquisitions, public equity offerings and high-yield bond offerings of hospitality companies including hotel owner, operator and franchisors as well as time share and extended stay companies. Mr. Smith has experience in many aspects of the hotel business from acquisition and ownership to asset management and renovation work to capital raising and structuring to dispositions.

 

Mr. Smith speaks about investment in real estate at Columbia Business School and serves the Columbia community in various other capacities, including being on the board of the real estate program at Columbia University (https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/realestate/about/advisoryboard). Mr. Smith has also served on panels at Harvard Business School regarding entrepreneurship in real estate.

 

Mr. Smith has a working knowledge of Spanish. Mr. Smith graduated with an MBA, with honors, from Columbia Business School and earned a BS in finance, with honors, from Santa Clara University. He is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma at both universities.