Hearing from a Hog is a Student Alumni Association exclusive program that allows students to meet with alumni in their desired career field. Recently, alumnus Dewitt Smith hosted a dinner for students interested in real estate.
The hearing from a hog event with Mr. Dewitt Smith was very good and enjoyable. I enjoyed talking to Mr. Smith about his career and how he got to where he is today. It was a very interesting story and a lot can be learned from people like him. I also appreciated the fact that in the ending of the dinner, he took time to give us, the students, some good life advice, no matter what your career or life plan is.
-Alex Chaffin, SAB President from Little Rock, Arkansas
More About Mr. Smith: Mr. Smith’s professional career spans four decades and covers a wide variety of commercial real estate disciplines including land development, construction, sales and leasing, asset and property management, financial analysis, financing and structuring complex investments. Devereux Management Company, a company he founded in 1986, is currently involved in commercial projects in five states.
Mr. Smith previously served as president and CEO of Cooper Realty Investments (CRI), a real estate operating company at which he managed a $450 million portfolio of Class A office, retail, mixed use and warehouse properties comprising 3.5 million square feet of commercial space He also held executive positions with Fairfield Communities where he managed large scale recreation/retirement communities in both Arkansas and North Carolina. He has served as an Adjunct Instructor at the Walton College of Business, University of Arkansas, where he taught Advanced Real Estate Finance and Investments at the MBA level and macroeconomics at the undergraduate level.
Mr. Smith is a licensed Professional Engineer, licensed Real Estate Broker, and a member of the National Society of Professional Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He serves on the boards of directors for the Washington Regional Medical Foundation, the United Methodist Foundation of Arkansas (past chairman), Mt Sequoyah Assembly (current chairman) and is a Commissioner for the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission.
Mr. Smith holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering degree from the University of Arkansas, and a MBA from Harvard Business School.
