He began as an investment banking associate and, for the last ten years of his career, was responsible for Merrill Lynch's growth outside of the United States.
Smith is now an entrepreneur, private investor, and chairman and CEO of Summit Ventures NE, LLC, which owned and operated Sugarbush Resort in Warren, Vermont from October 2001 until it was sold to Colorado-based Alterra Mountain Company in January 2020.
His former philanthropic duties included serving on the Boards of Deerfield Academy, the Cancer Research Institute, The Winthrop H. Smith Memorial Foundation, the New York City Ballet, The Economic Club of New York, Outward Bound USA, The Japan Society, The United Nations Association of the United States and The Americas Society.
His eldest child, Heather Smith Winkelmann, is managing director of Winvian Farm , in Litchfield, Connecticut.
Naval History and the Fifty-Year Fight to Exonerate an Innocent Man, by Lynn Vincent and Sara Vladic, recounts the tragic story of The Indianapolis and the disgraceful treatment of Captain McVay by the U.S. Navy in 1945.