Barb Smoot is the President & CEO of Women for Economic and Leadership Development (WELD), a national nonprofit that develops and advances women’s leadership to strengthen the economic prosperity of the communities it serves. As the driving force behind WELD’s rapid growth, Barb oversees the management of a 1,000+ membership base and the launch of nearly 100 programs annually. She serves as primary community liaison, overseeing fundraising, collaborative partnerships and development and implementation of WELD’s new strategic initiatives, including WELD’s national expansion. A master connector with a diverse network, Barb is highly sought after to help companies identify diverse board and executive talent. She is a subject matter expert on the recruitment and retention of women and women of color in the corporate arena.
In Barb’s current role, she builds programs to prepare women and women of color for advanced leadership opportunities including service on government boards and commissions and for-profit company boards. Under her leadership, WELD was selected for a coveted role to partner with the premier African American Directors Forum to implement strategies in the Ohio market to increase African American representation in the board rooms and C-suites of Ohio’s public companies.
Barb has a long track record of board and commission service in diverse roles and industries. She chairs the Advisory Board of Western Governors University Ohio, a nonprofit online institution with over 4,500 enrolled students statewide and over 260,000 graduates at the national level. She is a past board member of National Church Residences, the country’s largest not-for-profit provider of affordable senior housing and a national leader in supportive services with a footprint in over 310 communities and 25 states. Barb chaired the Audit, Finance & Risk Committee and also served on the board of their $100 million foundation. As a past commissioner on the Columbus Women’s Commission, Barb chaired the Gender Equity in the Workplace Committee, spearheading the development of the community strategy to build awareness of the gender and racial pay gaps and measures to help eliminate them. Under her leadership as committee chair, Columbus created its version of the pay equity pledge, The Columbus Commitment. To date, over 300 Central Ohio company CEOs have signed the pledge. Barb was appointed to the Westerville Board of Zoning Appeals and served over 3 years. Up until its acquisition by Nationwide Bank, Barb served on the Nationwide Federal Credit Union Board, an organization that had over $500 million in assets. Her roles included Second Vice Chair and a member of the Nominating, Executive Compensation, Budget/Finance and Supervisory Committees. As Nominating Committee Chair for the St. Joseph Montessori School Board, Barb modernized committee processes and served on the board at the start of a long-tenured CEO transition. She has also served on the Martin Luther King Arts Complex Board.
Barb is a proven, versatile leader with prior executive roles in the insurance industry where she honed extensive experience in strategic planning, profit and loss center management, line responsibilities, product management and business development. As Vice President of Business Development for Nationwide Financial’s In-Retirement Division, Barb, a past Fellow in the Society of Actuaries, led the development and implementation of IRA rollover strategies to retain customer assets from Nationwide’s nearly $100 billion Retirement Plans business segment and to attract new customers to the company. Previous roles also include serving as business development head for Income Products and product manager for the company’s individual life insurance line of business, a profit center that generated over $80 million in pre-tax operating earnings and over $175 million in first-year premiums and a variable universal life insurance product line ranked 4th in the industry at the time.
Barb received the 2022 Nuestra Familia Award from the Ohio Latino Affairs Commission for her impact in Ohio’s Latino community. In May 2022, Barb was awarded the Doctor of Humane Letters honoris causa from Ohio Dominican University and served as their commencement speaker. She is a 2021 Otterbein University Honorary Alumna and a 2020 YWCA Columbus Woman of Achievement honoree. Barb was recognized as one of Columbus Business First’s 2019-2021 Power 100 and selected as Columbus CEO 2017 CEO of the Year for Small Nonprofits. She is one of Smart Business’ 2016 Smart 50 award winners and was recognized as the 2014 National Association of Women Business Owners’ Columbus Women’s Business Champion. Under Barb’s leadership, WELD was awarded the Columbus Business First 2019 Outstanding Diversity Organization (Micro Category) and featured as Community Network of the Year by The Women’s Book.
Barb is a graduate of Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts in Physics.
