Robert W. Smiley, Jr. is the Founder, Chairman of the Board and a Managing Director of The Benefit Capital Companies, a national group of merchant banking and financial advisory firms headquartered in southeastern Nevada, with offices in Irvine, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Honolulu. His principal functions include the implementation of management and employee buyouts using employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) and other tax advantaged financing techniques.

Mr. Smiley has been involved as a principal, consultant or advisor to well over $5 billion in successful transactions in diverse industries over the past 30 years. He is a member of the management team of Benefit Capital Partners, which provides equity financing for management, employee and other buyouts, and brings substantial experience to these transactions.

Mr. Smiley is a Founder and past President of The ESOP Association, a nonprofit trade association for ESOP companies with over 2,200 current members and a full-time Washington, DC, staff. The Association promotes cooperation among government, industry and the professions involved with ESOPs. Mr. Smiley continues as a lifetime honorary member of the Board of Governors, and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Legislation and Regulatory Issues. He is a past director of the National Center for Employee Ownership and a founding editor of and contributing author to its flagship publication, The Journal of Employee Ownership Law and Finance. He is also a former Trustee of The Employee Ownership Foundation. Mr. Smiley was invited to testify before the Committee on Finance of the United States Senate in regard to pension legislation subsequently adopted by the U.S. Congress. He has also been invited to testify before state legislatures on pension matters. In recognition of his contribution to pension policy in the United States, he received the President's Special Achievement Award from the President's Commission on Pension Policy. Mr. Smiley is a frequent speaker and author on topics of corporate finance involving management and employee buyouts using tax advantaged financing techniques. He is the Managing Editor and a co-author of Employee Stock Ownership Plans: ESOP Planning, Financing, Implementation, Law and Taxation first published in 1989 by Prentice Hall, Maxwell Macmillan, with annual yearbooks by Warren Gorham Lamont; the 2007 edition is published by the Beyster Institute, Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego with annual updates through 2013.

Mr. Smiley has served on the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Extension. He served as a Trustee of the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, for nine years. Mr. Smiley received his AB in Economics from Stanford University and an LLB from LaSalle University, Chicago. Prior to entering Stanford he served a tour of duty in the United States Navy. He is a current member of the State Bar of California and the American Bar Association. He is listed in Who's Who in America. He has served as a director for a number of companies, both public and private.