A graduate of Macquarie University in Australia with an Honours degree in Business Management (majoring in client stakeholder management and human resources), Smith was promoted in October 2015 as the Managing Director of the Randstad’s group operations in Hong Kong and Malaysia after ascending to the position of Country Head for Randstad Singapore in 2012. At the time of helming the Singapore division, he was tasked with growing the business.

This is a challenging role given that Randstad works with over 750 multinational corporations and SME businesses in Asia. Smith was faced with an even bigger challenge when he first moved to Singapore in 2012 as the business was not performing near expectations and “there was significant pressure to turn it around as quickly as possible.” He admits to having had little choice but to make tough decisions to close businesses, make people redundant and exit client relationships. This learning period has helped to shape his leadership character, though, even if that period at times threatened to derail his convictions that he was making the right decisions.