Robert F. Smith is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. Vista manages equity capital commitments of over $100 billion and oversees a portfolio of over 90 enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies. Since Vista’s inception, Smith has supervised over 600 completed transactions representing more than $320 billion in aggregate transaction value. In 2023, Vista was named Global Technology Private Equity Firm of the Year by Private Equity International.

In 2017, Smith was named by Forbes as one of the 100 Greatest Living Business Minds.

The same year, Smith signed on to the Giving Pledge. As part of his philanthropic commitment, he gave $20 million to the National Museum of African American History and Culture – the museum’s largest gift by an individual donor at the time.

Smith is the Chairman of Carnegie Hall, on the Board of Directors for the Business Roundtable, on the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, a Member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, and a Trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

In 2019, he eliminated the student loans of nearly 400 Morehouse College 2019 graduates in a commencement address, which he later expanded to eliminate debt held by their guardians on their behalf. After his Morehouse pledge, Smith founded Student Freedom Initiative to relieve the crushing burden of student debt for students at HBCUs, other MSIs, and TCUs.

Smith is the founding director and President of the Fund II Foundation, dedicated to preserving the African American experience, safeguarding human rights, and sustaining critical American values like entrepreneurship.

In 2019, Fund II Foundation launched internXL, a platform to match leading companies with internship candidates from communities that lack access to opportunities.

He also co-leads Southern Communities Initiative, a catalytic program to accelerate wealth creation and economic growth in six Southern communities.

Smith is also a contributor to the book Lead Boldly: Seven Principles from Martin Luther King, Jr., in which Smith reflects on seven of Dr. King’s most impactful speeches, offering his own insights and reflections to bring Dr. King’s lessons to life for a new generation.

For his philanthropic commitments to uplifting communities, Smith was recognized on TIME100’s “Philanthropy” list in 2025.