Jerry Smith

Jerald "Jerry" D. Smith is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Laguna Development Corporation (LDC), a wholly-owned Section 17 (U.S.C. 477) coporation of the Pueblo of Laguna, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He has more than 25 years of executive management and economic development experience with extensive experience creating and growing Native nation-owned enterprises. He has developed and managed for-profit tribal operations, tribal administrative operations and facilitated advancement of housing opportunities for tribal communities through federal, state and tribal programs. In the 1990s, Smith and other Pueblo members studied the growth of Indian gaming in New Mexico and forged plans for the Pueblo's expansion into the market and created a federally chartered corporation (LDC) to operate all of its commercial businesses.

Smith holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from New Mexico State University. He serves on a number of boards and commissions including the Cibola County School District Board of Education, the Dallas Regional Home Loan Bank Advisory Board, and the New Mexico Economic Development Commission. He is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and has served three terms on the Laguna Tribal Council. [Source: Laguna Development Corporation]