About J. Mike Smith and Back West, Inc.

I am a San Francisco-based executive, career, and leadership & startup team coach: I help individuals, teams and groups perform significantly better, typically accomplishing more in less time and with less stress.

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. For those who are interested, I’m also a certified MBTI

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. I am also an MBTI® Certified Practitioner.

Consulting work includes organizations ranging from start-ups such as Good Medicine Consult & Advocacy, Orexigen, Inc. and Calixa Theraupeutics, Inc. to established smaller-to-mid-sized companies such as Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Asia Alternatives Management, LLC, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB Group) and Fortune 500-type companies such as Synopsys, Inc., Cypress Semiconductor, Genentech, and Gilead Sciences. I’ve also 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.

You can read an interview  at WhoHub. The name of my consulting practice – Back West – comes from growing up in the Pacific West, and and living for a period in Chicago: 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.