Richard W. Smith, president and CEO of FedEx Trade Networks and son of FedEx founder Fred Smith, is the new chairman of the board of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

Richard W. Smith

He was the choice of the chamber board Thursday evening, Nov. 16. He succeeds Carolyn Hardy, president and CEO of Chism Hardy Investments, in the post with a two-year term. Hardy was elected chairwoman of the chamber’s Chairman’s Circle in recent days.

Smith, who was a founding co-chair of the Chairman’s Circle, says he wants to keep the momentum going that Hardy created in the areas of private sector supply diversity – specifically the number of business-to-business contracts awarded to local minority and women-owned businesses.

He says those efforts, along with similar government contracting efforts at City Hall, “have moved the needle in the right direction for the first time in a long time.”

“We still have more work to do,” Smith added in a written statement. “And we remain committed to ensuring that the economic pie is distributed more evenly. Now, however, the focus turns to growing that pie as aggressively as possible, for everyone."