Dan Smytka is a CEO, Board Director, President, and C-level executive with global expertise in growing and leading multibillion-dollar businesses with marque brands such as General Electric, Carrier, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber across diverse B2B and B2C segments. He most recently served as CEO and Board Director for private equity business Zep, Inc.
Having lived as an expat for many years abroad leading businesses in Asia and Europe, Dan built a reputation for profitably growing businesses, building high-performance, collaborative executive teams, and executing strategies to deliver sustainable results.
Business Highlights:
- SCALING REVENUE GROWTH – Led a private equity (PE) turnaround of a high-efficacy maintenance and cleaning solution business serving across 5 industry segments, through strategic priorities, capability investments, and commercial execution ultimately growing revenues by 10% from $685M to $775M during the pandemic turmoil and building sustaining capabilities in factory infrastructure, products and talent.
- GM/P&L MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY – Developed and executed an Asia Pacific five-year strategic plan that involved operationalizing a $1.0B China greenfield factory, scaling a “Winning in China and India” strategy, and acquiring a Japan distribution company, resulting in EBITA growth from $234M to $320M.
- RISK MANAGEMENT FOR GLOBAL GROWTH – Turned around Goodyear’s largest investment of a $1.0B green-field facility in China and transfer of an existing facility through effective program management and regional government relations, improving new factory ramp-up by six months, transitioning existing facility’s 900 employees and equipment three months earlier and lowering start-up expenses by $70M.
- LEADING THROUGH VISION AND STRATEGY – Developed an enterprise-shared vision outlining an organizational purpose for “making the planet safer, cleaner, and more productive” identifying the priorities as culture, safety, quality, customer satisfaction, revenue growth, and profitability and championed transformative strategic moves across the business, culminating with the successful sale of a $95M business unit with a multiple well above market norms.
A native of Detroit, Dan earned a Master’s Degree in Corporate Finance from the University of Memphis and received his bachelor’s degree with dual majors in Business Economics and Psychology from Creighton University. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate at Case Western Reserves Weatherhead School of Management. Dan served active duty in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Captain.
Faith and family are important to Dan, who has been married for 37 years and is blessed to have a wonderful partner, three adult children and their partners, and four grandchildren. He enjoys most sports and remains very active outdoors as an avid hiker, runner, and cyclist. Having lived and worked in Asia Pacific and EMEA, a passion for travel is ingrained. Dan and his partner are actively involved in the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which focuses on their mission of serving the poor.