R. Adam Smith is an experienced investor, advisor, and builder of tens of startup, venture and private equity-backed companies in the U.S., and abroad, since the mid-1990s. Adam is an expert in the branded space with a focus on all matters related to the consumer, including luxury, accessories, retail, apparel, beauty, art and design, digital & media, food & beverages, wellness, real estate and wealth management. Through private equity partnerships he has led and/or sponsored since 2002, Adam has invested in over a dozen privately-held companies (including seven acquisitions) with a combined $600 million in sales and over $250 million of contributed equity invested capital, while also forming and serving on the Board of Directors, or Advisory Boards, of each company.

Adam is the founder and manager of alternative investing holding company, RAS Capital Partners LLC. In 2002, Adam founded Circle Peak Capital LLC, a private investment merchant banking partnership based in NYC he still manages today and which has served tens of limited partners with over $50 million of invested capital over time. 

Earlier in his career, Adam served as a principal at two leading private equity firms based in New York City, Caxton-Iseman Capital, an affiliate of Caxton Associates, one of the world’s legendary alternative investment organizations (founded 1993), and Castle Harlan, Inc. (founded 1987) each holding over $2 billion in aggregate managed equity capital. Adam was the first employee and instrumental in the success of a global emerging markets (half a billion dollar) hedge fund formed in 1996, Columbus Advisors LLC by the heads of Merrill Lynch emerging markets. Adam started his career on Wall Street in 1993, holding positions at top firms including Salomon Brothers Inc., J.P. Morgan, and Lehman Brothers Inc. After Salomon Brothers, Adam earned an MBA in 1998 with high honors (Beta Gamma Sigma) from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University (CBSGSB), and a BA cum laude in International Relations and Economics from Boston University.

Adam is an active alumnus of CBSGSB, a founding board member of the CBSGSB Private Equity Advisory Board, and a founder in 1996 of the school’s now legendary Investment Management Conference. In addition to his role as Founder and CEO of his three primary holdings, Circle Peak Capital LLC, Big Sky Partners LLC, and Family Office Private Advisors LLC, Adam is a founding special advisor to hedge fund platform, Stride Capital LLC (since 2010), and was appointed in 2016 to the Advisory Board of the NY Tech Fashion Lab, a collaboration with Springboard Enterprises and the Partnership Fund for New York City and leading fashion and technology organizations.

Adam is married and a proud father of three children, is active in foreign affairs, the arts, design, and is an avid collector. Adam has been a host, patron and / or sponsor of numerous arts related events including the International Fine Art and Antique Show, Weill Carnegie Recital Hall, The Avenue Show, and has been an amateur classical pianist since the age of 5. Frequent speaker, host and/or sponsor at conferences, including Columbia Business School, Buyouts Insider, ACG, YJP, iGlobal Forum, Marcus Evans.

Adam is an active patron and philanthropist, including his roles as Co-Founder of Leukemia Fighters at Weill Cornell College (one of the leading oncology non-profits affiliated with a top U.S. hospital), board member of the Musicians Treatment Foundation (the leading national injury treatment non-profit for musicians), and previously, on the founding Board of Directors of National Sawdust (aka,Original Music Workshop) in Brooklyn, advisor to the leading museum of innovation in craft, art, and design (founded 1956), the Museum of Arts and Design, a special advisor to the Tanenbaum Center, and former founding member of the Dean’s Advisory Board of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies of Boston University.

His practice focuses on business transactions, including domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, restructurings and venture and growth capital investments. Previously, Dan was head of the private equity practice at DLA Piper and Proskauer Rose LLP. He also served as general counsel at Arsenal Capital Partners. Adjunct Professor, Fordham University School of Law, 2016-2018