Smith Success Stories: Fabio Gimondi

At Smith, our goal has always been to help our people grow alongside our business. We strive to promote from within and create boundless opportunities to watch our employees step into bigger and bigger shoes. Ones fit for managers, directors, and even the executive suite. With this comes the opportunity to create an environment worthy of planting your roots.

For Fabio Gimondi, Managing Director, DACH, it was very important to find a sense of community from his employer, and he quickly found that at Smith.

His career kicked off after his college graduation in the summer of 2016, when he joined Smith’s sales team and began the onboarding process at our world headquarters in Houston, Texas. He eventually relocated to our San Jose office and gained extensive sales experience, forging strong business relationships with his customers and colleagues.

“Smith is a powerful network that provides the tools for individuals to grow in their careers,” said Fabio. “Even when I first started, I could pick up the phone to talk to someone, and the conversation would be easy-flowing and comfortable. Everyone knows each other, so there is this immediate sense of belonging and family.”

Utilizing his sales proficiency and deep understanding of the company, Fabio transitioned to the Purchasing department in 2018, allowing him to explore a different avenue within Smith and find continued success. When asked about the switch, Fabio said that it had a positive impact on his professional development. His mentors at Smith prioritized his education, worked to sharpen his industry acumen, and invested in his progression, and a year later, Fabio was promoted to the role of Senior Procurement Specialist.

Smith has consistently emphasized the importance of specialized learning experiences for our workforce. Employees are given comprehensive, individualized training to help facilitate the onboarding process and fill in gaps in industry knowledge. Our award-winning online-learning platform, Smith University, provides access to an extensive multilingual database for every department, giving each employee abundant opportunities to continue advancing, regardless of their chosen career path within the company.

To further nourish the minds of our high-performing employees, our Learning and Development department created Smith’s Leadership Development Program to continue the education of new managers and emerging leaders. Fabio was among the first cohort to matriculate into the program. Thanks to this additional training, Fabio was ready to step into a bigger role in 2021 when he was named General Manager of our Berlin office.

Beyond the wide-ranging tools and resources available, Smith also makes the conscious effort to commemorate career milestones with numerous employee-appreciation festivities and networking opportunities throughout the year. Our team members are encouraged to connect with people from different departments and offices to create solid foundations and lasting memories. Through these connections, we further cement a workforce that is collaborative, diverse, and positive.

“Every opportunity I was given was a chance to grow personally and professionally,” said Fabio. “Smith is very generous with opportunities and has taught me many valuable lessons. We have a great group of people from so many different cultures that come together to build a deep sense of camaraderie. From personal experience, Smith strives to empower younger people to become the next generation of leaders and provides a lively office environment, which is hard to come by. This entire experience has been so rewarding, and if I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Keep an eye out on our Careers page and visit our LinkedIn page for available opportunities and insights.