Finding Dave Smith on the board of an online university is like spotting an eagle in the sky or a walleye in the water—education companies are his natural habitat.
Ten years ago, while president of the testing business for Eden Prairie–based NCS (National Computer Systems), a technology provider for education systems, Smith joined the board of Capella Education Company, the Minneapolis-based parent of the online Capella University. At his urging, NCS had invested $5 million in Capella.
“I thought it was a business model that NCS may have a synergy with in the future, and thought we should learn as much as we could about the online educational industry,” Smith says.
In 2000, the U.K.–based education company Pearson PLC acquired NCS, rechristened it NCS Pearson, and moved it to Bloomington, with Smith named CEO. He’d helped grow NCS’s testing business from $60 million to $300 million. During his less-than-three-year tenure as CEO, the company grew more than 50 percent, from $800 million to $1.2 billion.
When he retired from NCS Pearson in 2003, Smith, now 63, accepted an invitation to stay on Capella’s board. No longer representing a corporate investor or potential business partner, he still felt that service to the company was important.
“I have this inherent idea that corporations are not institutional abstractions,” Smith says. “The people who invest and work in these businesses are the folks who live in our town; they’re our neighbors. So the prosperity of these corporations is essential to the well-being of our community.”
Capella founder and CEO Steve Shank says, “If I were to use one word” about Smith, “it would be ‘invaluable.’ The guy’s got a ton of insights. He’s a great sounding board and a great communication channel for where the board’s thinking is at. And I really respect his judgment. Every CEO needs that kind of support.”
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