Howard T. Smith, Jr.
Founder and Principal of Chartworth.

Howard has over 20 years of corporate finance, investment banking and CFO operating experience. As a senior executive, Howard’s career has centered on serving entrepreneurial middle market companies seeking significant investment capital and merger and acquisition assistance. He has extensive experience in operations, management, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, strategic financial planning, information systems development, SEC matters, workouts/turnarounds and debt and equity fund raising. Howard has successfully managed or advised companies through rapid growth, restructuring and other significant transitions.

Before founding Chartworth, Howard was Chief Financial Officer of Aprisma Management Technologies, a global network management software company. Howard was recruited to manage the company’s spin-off from its publicly traded parent company, Enterasys Networks. While at Aprisma, Howard led the company’s registration process with the SEC, assembled a team of leading Wall Street investment banks to manage the spin-off and provide after-market research coverage and coordinated due diligence activities on behalf of private equity firms interested in purchasing the company. After successfully completing the sale of Aprisma to a leading private equity firm, Howard launched Chartworth.

Before Aprisma, Howard was Chief Financial Officer of HoustonStreet Exchange, Inc., a venture backed, technology start-up established to create an on-line trading exchange for energy. At HoustonStreet, Howard was responsible for the capital raising activities of the company and successfully managed the company’s Series A private placement in Europe and Series C private placement in the United States. In addition, he managed the company’s business development and partnering activities with other energy and solutions providers. Following the company’s rapid growth, Howard was instrumental in stabilizing the company financially and implementing successful restructuring of its operations that led to profitability. As a result of Howard’s leadership, the company today operates profitably in a successful market niche.

Prior to HoustonStreet, Howard was Chief Financial Officer of Copyright Clearance Center, where he was recruited to help the company launch a new strategy and business model to respond to the opportunities presented by the Internet. While at the company, Howard orchestrated the launch of a spin-off venture to license digital content over the Web, revamped budget and strategic planning processes, and directed all finance and business development activities.

Howard’s background includes 15 years of prior investment banking experience at Dean Witter Reynolds, Fleet Corporate Finance, and Baldwin and Clarke Corporate Finance, an investment banking firm that he co-founded in 1986. Also during this time frame, Howard served as a Director in the Corporate Finance Services Group at Coopers and Lybrand in Boston, Massachusetts. Howard has extensive experience in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, private placements and valuation of securities across a broad range of industries including software, computer electronics, communications, health care, manufacturing and services.

Howard began his career in management consulting at Booz Allen and Hamilton and Touche Ross & Co. This combination of operating, consulting and investment banking experience is central to Chartworth's approach of ensuring that client strategies are right and implemented in a way to maximize the value of strategic transactions. Howard is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the George Washington University Graduate School of Business and Public Management. Howard is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), is Accredited in Business Valuation (ABV), and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Hampshire Society of CPAs. Howard is also an Accredited Senior Appraiser (ASA) in the American Society of Appraisers in the discipline of Business Valuation. Residing in North Hampton, New Hampshire, Howard enjoys competitive road cycling (is a licensed Expert Coach with USCF), perennial gardening and his wife and young daughter.