Managing Editor
Smith wants to contribute ‘time, energy’
Derrick Smith, like his employer CSX Corp., knows how to move what’s important.
While CSX moves cargo along its extensive railroad system, Smith moves issues, ideas and strategies.
“With CSX being one of the more prominent employers in town, you are an ambassador when you are out there,” Smith said.
Certainly Smith, 52, is integral in the Jacksonville-based company, the city’s largest Fortune 500 company with $9 billion in revenues. About five months ago, Smith was named vice president of financial planning and analysis, a pivotal position for the 24-year CSX veteran.
“Derrick is a key leader in our company who has worked extensively to develop our various lines of business,” said Michael Ward, CSX chairman and CEO.
However, Smith also is deeply immersed in the community’s civic system. Ward said Smith brings the same level of professional intensity “to people development and community involvement.”
Smith is vice chair of the finance committee for the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, serves on the boards of Wolfson Children’s Hospital, WJCT Foundation and Episcopal High School of Jacksonville Board of Trustees and is completing a term on the board of the First Coast Manufacturers Association. He recently finished his third year as one of the manufacturers’ tri-chairmen.
“He is a true visionary,” said Lad Daniels, manufacturers’ association president. “He is able to not only think long term, but can build consensus around long-term organizational goals. We are fortunate that he is dedicated to making our community better through his personal involvement.”
Smith also is re-engaging with the Jacksonville Urban League, for which he served two years as chair. The league is enlisting former chairs to assist the organization with awareness, growth and sustainability.
Urban League President Richard Danford said Smith helped develop a five-year strategic plan.
“He had incredible leadership forcing the organization to really look at its mission, its goals and objectives, timetables and to develop a plan that would not sit on a shelf,” said Danford. “He’s very sharp, very focused and he has a keen sense for sorting out situations.”
Smith has volunteered at the Chamber in several positions, including chair of the business inclusion committee last year.
“He has excelled in every position by bringing to it an intense intelligence and an incredible analytical ability,” said Chamber President Wally Lee. “Derrick represents CSX with distinction.”
To recognize Smith’s contributions, CSX nominated him to SaVoy Magazine, which recently chose him as one of its 2010 top 100 most influential blacks in corporate America.
Smith, a self-described “compulsive scheduler,” takes his board roles seriously. He wants to be more than just a name on the board list.
“The importance of being on boards is you contribute your time, your energy and your thought leadership,” he said.
The same holds true at CSX.
“He is an accomplished executive who sets the right example for combining success in the workplace and his community,” said Ward.
CSX, based Downtown, is why he’s here. Smith, his wife Cristalia and their two sons, ages almost three and five weeks at the time, moved to Jacksonville in April 1993 in a CSX transfer from Baltimore. He joined CSX there in 1986 as a market development manager and took on increasing responsibilities.
Before becoming corporate finance vice president in December, he had served as vice president of emerging markets since 2003. He characterized the move to corporate finance as a job rotation with another executive who was moved to his former area.
“It gives me a larger corporate perspective,” he said, expecting to remain in the role for at least 18 months. The company is “trying to further develop the management team” by exposing executives to the key functional areas.
“In this job, it does give you that broader corporate focus,” he said. “I want to always be deemed a high contributor to the organization.”
CSX employs about 30,000 people, including 4,500 in Florida and 3,400 in the Jacksonville area.
Smith’s move to Jacksonville wasn’t a personal or family plan. It was CSX’s decision.
“It was something we had some trepidation about,” said Smith. “We were deeply rooted, had just bought a house and there was no inclination to leave that area. What we knew about Jacksonville was that it didn’t offer as much as we had there.”
He grew up in Pittsburgh, earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University there and then received his MBA in New York at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. Last year, he completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program.
He grew up in the big city and enjoys the events, resources and energy that they offer.
But Jacksonville is home now — with 400,000 more people in the metro area than when he arrived — and Smith is making tracks at CSX. His sons are 19 and 16, with the oldest in college and the younger deciding on one.
In whatever free time he can schedule, he reads or rides his bike and travels with his family. He’s looking forward to the Jazz Festival and he renewed his Jacksonville Jaguars tickets.
The career, volunteer commitments and college search are limiting some of that extra time, though.
“Most days, right now, are occupied,” he said.
Smith said his impression of Jacksonville has changed. “You can feel the city has grown up,” he said.
First, “Jacksonville has physically gotten larger,” said Smith, who lives in Ponte Vedra. But the larger population also means people are living further outside the city core. That affects connectivity, he said.
Second, he finds that “Jacksonville is at a bit of a crossroads.”
Smith said that with the city’s focus on the port and international trade, it must be prepared to welcome the resulting changes.
“What happens,” he asked, when the international businesses and residents move to town as a result?
“How inclusive will this community be? How open?”
Smith said that if Jacksonville considers itself an international city, “you have to see what the implications will be.”
“It is important to have a vision of what it will mean to be a global city. What will we be, and are people going to be OK with that?”
Smith characterized Jacksonville as a city “rooted in family values and tradition.”
As more families and traditions take root in the area, the city should be prepared for inclusion.
“I’m not suggesting it’s a problem, but it’s something we need to think about.”
As a civic leader, he suggests that city and business leaders, especially the new Jacksonville Civic Council, start discussions.
“Hopefully, they’re talking about this stuff and if not, why not?”
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