Dan Smith

Dan Smith grew up outside the city limits of small Texas towns — tramping through woods near Gonzales and wandering the draws that channeled rain into Cibolo Creek on his family’s land outside Stockdale. Those early days in nature began shaping how he sees the world today.

The youngest son of a preacher and teacher, he moved to Los Angeles after college, working as a business editor at a metro daily newspaper while exploring urban living across Southern California.

His coolest address ever was “General Delivery, Hale’iwa, Hawai’i,” and the postmaster was usually playing a T-Bone Walker CD when Dan picked up his mail. He lived in the islands twice, working for Hawai’i’s incumbent phone company—first as director of public affairs and communications, and then as VP of corporate communications. During that time, he directly engaged with an indigenous worldview of relationship with the land, deepening the connection he first experienced as a boy in Texas.

For most of his career, Dan has worked at the intersection of technology and everyday life—helping make sense of digital change in the analog world.

His employer, NTT DATA, sponsored Robert Swan’s Undaunted: South Pole 2023 expedition, and Dan joined the Union Glacier base camp team to help document the trek.

On Thin Ice, Dan’s views are his own. He brings together lived experience, professional insight, and lessons learned the hard way—with a belief that meaningful change never begins with perfection. It begins with awareness, setting a direction and taking the first step.