Focus

As a founding partner of Qorvis Communications, Esther Thomas Smith brings extensive corporate strategy experience with particular expertise in technology companies. An accomplished relationship manager, she is an integral part of the technology community both regionally and nationally. She is an icon in the Washington region business community, having been elected in 2002 to The Washington Business Hall of Fame. She was founder and President of TechNews Inc., publishers of Washington Technology, and earlier was founding editor of Washington Business Journal and Business Review of Washington.

Pertinent Background & Relationships

• Formerly a partner at The Poretz Group, the first investor relations firm based in the Greater Washington, DC area, which focused its expertise on technology and new economy companies.
• Founder of both Washington Technology newspaper and the Washington Business Journal and was among the first to identify Washington’s networked information technology industry as a global cluster.
• Chief Executive Officer and a director of TechNews Inc., the predecessor company to Post-Newsweek Business Media Inc.
• Created the Fast 50/Fast 500 promotions, the annual Greater Washington High Tech Awards event and the National Technology Summit.
• Speaker at the National Innovation Summit of the Council on Competitiveness and at several corporate governance forums; member of the board of The World Affairs Council and the Blue Ribbon Commission on Board Evaluations of the National Association of Corporate Directors.
• Former public company independent director, serving on the audit committee and chairing the nominating and governance committee.
• Director or advisor to several privately held and venture backed companies and funds.
• Senior advisor to the Netpreneur Program, an initiative of The Morino Foundation; member of Senior Advisory Board of Northern Virginia Technology Council, where she was a charter member and a former director; and Trustee of George Mason University Foundation.
• Inducted as a laureate into the Washington Business Hall of Fame in 2002.
• Received the Earle C. Williams Leadership in Technology award of the Northern Virginia Technology Council in 1999.
• In 1997, honored as Washington Business Woman of the Year and earlier named to Washingtonian magazine’s List of Washington’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Education

Smith graduated with a B.A. from Agnes Scott College.