Lee Smith

Lee Smith is President of Hartland Asset Management, a registered investment advisor serving pension funds. He has twenty years of experience working with institutional investors on the development and operation of investment programs. At HAMC he manages an investment fund providing real estate loans to finance building renovation projects and/or new construction. The Fund features an innovative method for pension funds to provide credit enhancement of tax exempt bonds used for building development projects. Over his career, Mr. Smith has organized over $500 million worth of investment programs. Through an affiliate, ASP - American Solar Partners, Hartland is an active developer of renewable energy projects, specifically solar power systems. Mr. Smith is the managing member and chief financial officer of American Solar Partners, a developer of renewable energy projects and the industry partner of the IBEW for developing solar power systems for IBEW union locals, union members, and union contractors. Over the past four years, American Solar Partners, has developed dozens of commercial solar power installations and hundreds of residential installations. Before starting Hartland, Mr. Smith served in the Administration of New York Governor Mario M. Cuomo, having been appointed in 1983 as the Deputy Commissioner and general counsel of the NYS Labor Department, where he was responsible for enforcement of the State's labor laws. In 1986 he was named Deputy Commissioner for Economic Development, and Executive Director of the Industrial Cooperation Council, a public-private organization addressing important economic issues facing the business and labor communities in the State. In 1989 he was named Executive Director of the Governor's Pension Investment Task Force, a 20 member committee of legal and financial experts and pension fund executives, chaired by Ira Millstein, to examine the role of pension funds in economy. He edited the Task Force's two reports: Our Money's Worth, The Report of the Governor's Task Force on Pension Fund Investment, (New York, l989); Competitive Plus - A Study of Economically Targeted Investments by Pension Funds, (New York, 1990). In 1991, he founded Excelsior Capital Corporation, an investment organization established by the State of New York to organize and implement investment programs. Before joining the Cuomo Administration, he was a labor lawyer in private practice, with a specialty in ERISA-related matters. He is a cum laude graduate of SUNY at Buffalo School of Law and has a BA with high honors from SUNY at Buffalo.