Smith Receives Best Family-Owned Business Award From Houston Business Journal

Smith was recognized for its distinguished business accomplishments

Houston, TX (July 10, 2023) – Smith, a leading global distributor of electronic components and semiconductors, today announces that it has been named one of Houston Business Journal’s inaugural Best Family-Owned Business Award honorees. This award recognizes Smith’s outstanding business success and celebrates the integral part family-owned businesses play in their local economies.

Founding the company in 1984, brothers Bob and Lee Ackerley set up Smith’s first office in Bob’s dining room in Houston, Texas. Four decades later, the company now has nearly 1,000 employees in nineteen cities around the world. Smith announced back-to-back record-breaking revenues for 2021 and 2022, generating more than $8 billion in global sales over the last two years.

“We are honored to be named a recipient of the Best Family-Owned Business Award,” said Bob Ackerley, Co-Founder and Director at Smith. “Smith came from humble beginnings, but through hard work, innovative ideas, and continuous reinvestment, we have built a truly amazing company, and I am excited to watch it grow and evolve to meet the needs of the everchanging technology industry.”

Beyond the critical role Smith plays in the global electronic-component supply chain, the company actively gives back to its communities around the world through Smith’s corporate social responsibility program. The company recently launched the Smith Global Foundation, which serves as a vehicle for supporting both local and international charitable causes. Smith donated more than $750,000 in electronics to organizations providing aid to Ukrainian refugees last year, and the company’s employees regularly participate in charity runs, cleaning up area beaches, and purchasing school supplies and uniforms for local children.

“Smith’s relationships are the key to our success—our relationships with our customers, suppliers, employees, and communities,” said Lee Ackerley, Co-Founder and Director at Smith. “Texas has been a thriving technology sector for many years, which has helped us to build strategic relationships in our business. In turn, we’ve invested in our relationships with our communities, and I look forward to continuing our efforts to create a positive, long-lasting impact on Houston and around the world.”

About Smith

Founded in 1984, Smith sources, manages, and distributes the electronic components that go into everything from mobile phones and computers to appliances and automobiles. In 19 cities around the world, Smith’s legion of employees communicates in 50 languages and dialects and buys and sells components 24 hours per day, generating global annual sales in excess of $4.7 billion in 2022. Smith is always moving: helping manufacturers navigate market shifts; customizing supply chain solutions; testing components using cutting-edge technology. The support of Smith’s flexible Intelligent Distribution™ model optimizes customers’ supply chains from beginning to end, including offering customized options for IT asset disposition that deliver maximum ROI, sustainability, and security. Smith’s testing and logistics hubs in Houston, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, and Singapore cover critical areas like quality management, counterfeit prevention, and environmental safety. Smith’s operations, purchasing, and sales worldwide are seamlessly integrated with the company’s global IT infrastructure, offering real-time, global inventory and logistics visibility. Smith is the leading independent distributor of electronic components and ranks number seven among all global distributors. For more information, please visit www.smithweb.com or reach out to a Smith representative any time of day at +1 713.430.3000.

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For more information, contact:
Rich Witmer
Smith, Senior Director of Marketing
+1 713.430.2141