Rick Smith

Blogger, Business adviser, Connector, Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Inventor, Investor, Musician, Performer, Writer/Editor

Rick Smith is a serial entrepreneur and bestselling author with an eclectic range of accomplishments. Rick is the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Coalition on Additive Manufacturing (GCAM), bringing together leading executives to collaborate on the emerging strategic opportunities created by industrial 3D printing production. He is the co-founder of CloudDDM, a direct digital manufacturing company bringing speed and scale to additive manufacturing. Rick was the founder and previous CEO of World 50, the world's premier global senior executive networking organization. World 50 contributors include Robert Redford, Bono, Alan Greenspan, President George W. Bush, Francis Ford Coppola and more than 100 other iconic leaders. Rick was the founding CEO of Next Generation Leadership, the leading CEO succession development program for the Fortune 500, with faculty representing the most respected Chief Executives of a generation, including Anne Mulcahy, A.G. Lafley, Jim Kilts, Carlos Gutiérrez, Jack Welch and others. He is the author of two nationally bestselling books, The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers (Random House/ 2003), and The Leap (Penguin Portfolio/2009). Rick is the inventor of the Primary Color personality assessment (patents pending), which was released online in 2009 and has been taken by more than 70,000 people.

my family, my band, my books, my business

3D printing will change the way things are made more in this century than the industrial revolution did in the last 300 years.

3D printing, Executive Networks, Innovation

I started my first company, World 50, back in 2004 to bring together the world's top executives for collaboration. Someone told me that TED was doing some interesting things in the meeting space, and after the first year I was hooked. Several of the people I have met at TED have ended up in my books, and I have made numerous life-long friends.

I am the founder, lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the band Men Without Youth. We have been together for 13 years, and have opened for Lynerd Skynerd and Zack Brown.