Alex Smith

Alex Smith is Chief Human Resources Officer for the City of Memphis, reporting directly to Mayor Jim Strickland. Alex is the visionary and architect behind the city’s talent management, training, employee relations, employee engagement, compensation, benefits, Total Rewards and diversity initiatives. She is also the “Chief Change Officer,” focused on evolving the City of Memphis’s culture to enable Mayor Strickland’s mission of “improving the quality of life for all Memphians, every day.”

Under Alex’s guidance and focus on innovation, collaboration, accountability, and service, she is helping position the City of Memphis as a model for a Twenty-First Century city. One example of Alex’s success includes driving the implementation of Oracle HCM making City of Memphis the first public sector in the country to launch the largest HR cloud-based technology. This accomplishment gained interest from Workforce Magazine where she was featured for her achievement behind this initiative. Alex has been featured in publications for her work around transforming a government municipality to the 21st Century through cloud-based technology and economic empowerment through workforce sustainability. Some of her most notable features include Forbes, American City and County Magazine, Governing Magazine and CNBC. Alex has served as a guest panelist and conference presenter for several conferences and forums including; Hope Global Forum, Unleash Conference, Workforce Spotlight Webinar, Aspen Institute, National League of Cities, Governing Magazine Webinar, Oracle OpenWorld, SXSWedu and SXSW and International Personnel Management Association.

Before her service with the City of Memphis, Alex was the Director of Human Resources for Brightstar Device Protection, a subsidiary of Brightstar Corporation where she led vital culture and organizational development projects. Formerly, she served in HR management roles for industry leaders, including Target Corporation and Microsoft Corporation, building a career of being a strategic HR partner for key business leaders.

Alex is also a firm believer in community service and has volunteered in several leadership roles, most notable being the global chairperson for Blacks at Microsoft, the first employee resource group at Microsoft Corporation. She also served on the board of Youth Eastside Services in Bellevue, WA.

Alex holds a Bachelors in Economics from Duke University and earned a Masters in Human Resources and Industrial Relations from the University of Minnesota. She currently resides in Memphis with her two daughters.