Trainer · Consultant · Author

Roger W. Smith is a Mississippi native and Mississippi State University graduate, where he earned a degree in communications. He spent nearly thirty years in the utility software industry, joining Central Service Association in Tupelo in 1994 and eventually rising to Chief Business Development Officer before transitioning to industry consulting. Along the way, he earned CPSv and CPE certifications through TVPPA and built a reputation as someone who understood not just the technology side of the business, but the human side — the part that determines whether organizations and the people leading them actually succeed.

That experience led him, in 2022, to found RWSmith ETC, LLC with his wife Lisa, offering what Roger prefers to call VITAL skills training rather than soft skills, because there is nothing soft about the ability to lead, communicate, and develop the people around you.

That belief is also at the heart of his first nonfiction book, They Don't Build Monuments Honoring Managers. It is not a book about management theory or the latest leadership framework. It is a book about what Roger has observed over four decades of watching people lead—some succeeded, and some failed. The argument is straightforward: management and leadership are not the same, and only one is worth aspiring to.

Keynote addresses, breakout sessions, and full-day workshops built around the book are available for conferences, leadership retreats, and organizational events. Visit the contact page to start the conversation.

Roger is also the author of fiction. Writing as R. Willis Smith, he published Operation Hoplon: The Joshua Booker Origin Story in 2024 — the first installment in a series following Joshua Booker, an operator for ACXN, a covert off-the-books organization that handles the problems other resources can't. Books two and three, Operation Amphisbaena and Operation Ochetós, are due out in fall 2026. Look for them under the name R. Willis Smith on Amazon or order through your favorite bookstore.

Roger and Lisa live in Tupelo, Mississippi.