Gary Smaby

Gary Smaby

After ten years as a successful entrepreneur, Gary Smaby joined the Minneapolis-based investment banking firm of Piper Jaffray as a vice- president /senior analyst. He built an international reputation as a Wall Street analyst in the IT sector and was promoted to Managing Director, Technology Research. He then joined the New York investment firm of Needham and Co. as Managing Director, eventually leaving to form his own firm, Smaby Group, Inc. In 2000 Gary co-founded Quatris Fund, an early-seed stage venture capital fund formed with St. Paul Venture Capital. Gary was the president of the Minnesota Venture Capital Association in 2003 and currently serves as board chair for four start-up companies, Algos Therapeutics, finEye, Pontus and Iconoculture. Gary just completed a six-year term on the Board of Trustees for the Science Museum of Minnesota. He also served for five years on the External Advisory Board for the Deep Computing Institute at the IBM TJ Watson Research Laboratory.

In addition, for more than forty years, Smaby’s artistic eye has peered through a camera lens; capturing memorable images that run the gamut from classic portraiture to experimental new media. He has trained his lens on an eclectic range of subjects: from legendary rock stars and Nobel laureates to breathtaking landscapes from the Himalaya to the Serengeti. His acclaimed body of work has been variously featured on gallery walls, album jackets, as well on the web and in publications such as The New Yorker.