Michael Smith serves as the President and CEO of Charlotte Center City Partners (CCCP), a 45-year-old Economic and Community Development organization that envisions and implements strategies and actions to assure that Center City Charlotte is a welcoming, safe and equitable, economically vibrant, culturally rich and beloved place for all.

Smith is a proven community builder and innovator, with over 20 years of non-profit leadership experience and trusted relationships across the Charlotte Region and NC. Smith’s background blends corporate, entrepreneurial, and non-profit experience.

Smith holds his MBA from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree from UNC Chapel Hill. He has held roles at AT&T Communications and First Union’s Capital Markets Group and was a founder at By-Products Interactive. Prior to his role as CEO of CCCP, Smith was the Chief Financial Officer at the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce.

Since 2005, as CEO of CCCP, Smith has been a driving force behind a number of city-building initiatives, creating and helping shape initiatives that have advanced the landscape for the Charlotte in economic development, retail development, sustainability, public safety, homelessness, transit and hospitality. Over the last couple of decades, Charlotte’s urban core has been transformed into a major destination, become a thriving neighborhood and expanded as the Charlotte region’s major employment center.

Smith is past Chairman of the Board of Directors for the International Downtown Association. He also serves on a number of regional Boards including the Board of Trustees for UNC Charlotte, Boy Scouts of America Mecklenburg County Council, Charlotte Sports Foundation, and the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. He is active with St. Peter Catholic Parish.

He was raised in Greensboro, North Carolina, and has resided in Charlotte since 1998 with his wife, Kathleen, and their three young adult children.