My name is Kristerpher J. Smith and I have the pleasure to serve as the Chairman of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Young Professionals Group. As such, I am charged with leading the 24 person board to bridge the region’s vibrant community of young professionals while helping ensure we are encouraging the attraction, development and advancement of YPs throughout the Charlotte Region. In addition to the YP group, Smith has also been appointed to serve on the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance Executive Committee. Professionally, I am a Commercial Banker with JPMorgan Chase’s Middle Market Client Coverage team supporting privately held businesses throughout the Western part of North Carolina.
I grew up in Nashville, TN, the archnemesis to the Carolinas and am a transplant like most. Unique to many, I’ve experienced various different cities as a young professional including Cincinnati, OH (twice), Greenville, SC, Denver, CO, Dallas, TX, Chicago, IL, Houston, TX – all of which with the same company until my move to Charlotte with JPMorgan Chase. Funny enough, before moving here, I had only been stuck in the airport once 6 years prior. I count my lucky stars that this move was fruitful.
I like to think that through these transitions I have remained a “typical YP” to some extent. From a personal perspective, I married my college sweetheart, grew my family by two awesome daughters while navigating life as a young family. Career wise, I was and still am constantly interested in how I can grow, develop, advance and have a great time doing it. Even though each past city experience brought something special, I have truly appreciated Charlotte for the breadth of opportunity. The Charlotte Region sincerely welcomes the voice of those that don’t hold a CXO title. Civic groups, nonprofits and the broader business community seem to invite junior voices to have a seat at the table and help make a difference if you’re willing to put in the effort. Our region appears to understand the role young professionals and younger generations play in shaping the success of the place where we live, work, and play.
What will 2022 look like for the Charlotte Alliance Young Professionals? I want to help prove that we are change agents in our communities, organizations and companies. I want to ensure that we are empowering each other to stand up for what is right and for what we deserve. We are striving for the opportunity to learn, grow, dream, build and earn – all without limits! I believe in years past there has been negative connotations behind the ‘hungry’ young professional. There has been this thought that as a whole we are impatiently rushing to the corner office or C-Suite. As a group the Charlotte YP’s convene future leaders to discuss our hopes and desires as our careers mature. Come to find out, we are just yearning to have a fighting chance. We are steadfast to earning a chance to learn well beyond our annual compliance training corporate or policy training. We are committed to developing ourselves to be the best versions of what we could never imagine. That’s what we are focused on, intentional about and excited for.
As a YP group this next year, we are hyper focused on establishing social capital, building our hard/soft skills and actively preparing for the day it will be our time to be the business leaders of the city that others aspire to be.
Please join me in this simple yet powerful Call to action…
For the Young Professionals [Young by number or at heart]
Engage with us by following #CLTAllianceYP
Seek the development you deserve
For the Senior Leaders [Business, community, etc.:]
Encourage your Young Professionals to engage with the Charlotte YP’s
Pour into a YP beyond the framework of your annual review
Encourage your peers to do the same
Statistics show that our Queen City and broader region has been royally impressive to the world as it relates to companies interested in moving operations to our area. Even more so, our region has been a lifestyle attraction for those realizing that opportunity and quality of life is thriving in our region. I’m honored to be among the group that is intentionally helping shape what Charlotte could look like in 2050 and beyond. I’m bullish on the magic of our region and look forward to calling home for many years to come, regardless of what my past frequency of relocation might suggest.
