An enthusiastic leader, Fredrick Smith has more than 25 years of experience in business management, with more than 15 years spent as an educator and trainer. A recognized and respected service professional, Fredrick has expertise in both consulting and human resources management. Throughout his career, Fred has responded to the challenges of corporate downsizing, mergers, and reorganizations by acquiring new skills and studying the best practices of his employers.
As a vice president of sales first with ProGroup and now with Novations, Fredrick's responsibilities included managing the business development team and its day to day and long term activities in an effort to increase sales and provide Novations' innovative services and products to clients worldwide. In his first year, Fredrick was a direct contributor to a 25% increase in sales. His interest in developing new account managers is reflected in the ongoing coaching and mentoring he provides at every opportunity to all members of his team.
Before joining ProGroup, Fredrick was Vice President of Diversity at a large retail chain, where his responsibilities included designing and implementing diversity training for the company's 60,000 employees. Additionally, he was responsible for the Human Resources and Loss Prevention Departments for 90 retail stores and over 7,000 employees. Prior to that, he spent 16 years with retail/wholesale companies in Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia working in Human Resources and various operations' leadership assignments.
Fredrick thrives on the challenge of working collaboratively. "That is the biggest motivation for me," he says. "It's the ability to achieve something that other people don't envision as being possible. That's the part I enjoy the most. If it were easy, anybody could do it."
With a bachelor's degree in secondary education from Texas A&M University, Fredrick serves on boards of several organizations targeting hunger and spousal abuse and is involved with several multicultural interfaith ministries and chambers of commerce. He has served on the boards for the University of Houston International Institute for Diversity–Bauer College of Business, the Kellogg Corporate Advisory Committee at Texas A&M University, and the United Way. Fredrick is a sought after public speaker who receives regular invitations to speak on topics related to human resources and diversity across the country.
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