Ryan L. Smith is the Executive Vice President and a Board Director of Atlanta Life Insurance Company. Ryan co-led the acquisition of Atlanta Life, the historic, minority-founded and -owned financial institution. Before his current role, Ryan was Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff of EquiTrust Life Insurance Company, where he led the company’s innovation, strategy, and corporate development activities.
Before EquiTrust, he was the Director of Investments for Magic Johnson Enterprises, where he launched and led the Venture Capital practice in addition to his role as an Investor in the Private Equity practice, which included the acquisition of EquiTrust in 2015.
Before joining Magic Johnson Enterprises, Ryan was an Investor at Bronze Investments, a venture capital firm focused on investments at the intersection of profitability and positive social impact. Before Bronze, he was an Investor at IMB Development Corporation, a New York-based private equity firm focused on building large-scale, minority-owned businesses.
Ryan began his career in investment banking and capital markets at Morgan Stanley, working on over $20 billion of equity and equity-linked public offerings. In addition to his private sector activities, Ryan co- founded Restoring Our Character (ROC), a national not-for-profit organization. He was also a member of the USC Marshall Venture Capital Fund Investment Committee.
Ryan graduated Magna Cum Laude from Howard University with a Bachelor of Business Administration (Finance) and received his M.B.A. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
