Paul Smith is the chairman of our Telecommunications practice and a senior member of the Technology, Media and Full-Potential Transformation practices. He is based in San Francisco.

With more than two decades of consulting experience, Paul has successfully led assignments in a variety of industries including telecommunications, information processing, health care and technology. He has assisted clients in developing product technology, customer retention, re-engineering and turnaround strategies.

What changes are required of our telco legacy companies to triumph in this new digital platform economy?

Prior to joining Bain, Paul worked for Raytheon Corporation, in their data systems division, where he helped develop a number of computer software applications. He then moved to Burroughs Corporation (now part of Unisys Corporation), where he was one of the developers of the organization's cutting-edge mainframe computers. He led one of the teams that defined the instruction set and underlying architecture of the new computers and subsequently led one of the teams that developed the operating system for those computers.

Paul graduated with highest honors from University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) with a BS in computer science and mathematics, and earned an MBA with highest distinction from Harvard Graduate School of Business.