Robert F. Smith is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. Vista currently manages equity capital commitments of over $58Bn and oversees a portfolio of over 60 enterprise software, data, and technology-enabled companies that have more than 200 million users and employ over 70,000 people worldwide.

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

Smith is the founding director and President of the Fund II Foundation, which is dedicated to preserving the African American experience, safeguarding human rights, providing music education, preserving the environment while promoting the benefits of the outdoors, and sustaining critical American values.

In 2017, Smith signed on to the Giving Pledge, the only African American to do so. His gift of $20 million was the largest by an individual donor to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Smith is the Chairman of Carnegie Hall and Chair of the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Business Roundtable, the Board of Overseers of Columbia Business School, as a Member of the Cornell Engineering College Council, and a Trustee of the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco.

In 2019, Smith made headlines by announcing that he would cover the student loans of nearly 400 Morehouse College 2019 graduates in a commencement address. In 2020, Smith was named as one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People.