About J. Mike Smith and Back West, Inc.

I am a San Francisco based executive, career and leadership team coach: I help individuals, teams and groups perform significantly better.

Please see the “Hire Me” tab for the type of one-shot, short-term, or extended coaching work I do with individuals and teams.

Most of my work is with senior managers (executive and career coaching), start-up and leadership teams (company start-up, team transitions, and team building) and with groups (off-site design and group facilitation).

And yes, many of my clients are probably people like you or people with whom you work.

I have a consulting practice incorporated as Back West, Inc. – working with individuals, teams, and organizations. I bring to my work over 30 years of business experience and a work background that spans industries including financial and professional services, high tech, biotech, retail and wholesale distribution. While I know a lot of theory, I also know a lot through the school of experience and practice. I haven’t been just a “tourist” in the business workplace – I’ve lived there and been a citizen. My work is marked by good, fast starts and results that last.

When I work with individuals, teams and organizations it’s usually the about terrain and environment I know well since I’ve held jobs based from cubicles to the executive suite – all the while having coaching as a key component of my work.  My consulting practice – Back West, Inc . – is focused in three areas – executive coaching with individuals, coaching work with teams such as team start-up and team building, and group facilitation and off-site design.

Consulting work has included organizations ranging from virtual start-ups such as Orexigen, Inc. and Calixa Theraupeutics, Inc. to mid-size companies such as Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Asia Alternatives Management, LLC and Cypress Semiconductor and Fortune 500 companies such as Genentech, Gilead Sciences, AT&T, and Visa. I’ve also been been fortunate to work with non-profit organizations such as SRI International, the Robert Toigo Foundation and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

I’ve also held corporate roles as a Senior Vice President of Human Resources with McKesson, a Director of Human Resources for Chiron Corporation, a Principal and Director of Human Resources for Fluid, Inc., and as a Principal and senior HR practitioner with Barclays Global Investors (now part of BlackRock), a San Francisco-based asset management company and during my tenure the world’s largest money manager.

More information, including contact details, can be found at my consulting practice web site www.backwest.com. You can also read a interview  at WhoHub. The name comes from growing up in the Pacific West, and living for a while in the Midwest: calling home “back west” seemed to be the logical orientation rather than the usual “out west.” You can also follow me on Twitter as JMikeSmith.