Neil Smith, is new general manager of the Milwaukee Athletic Club
Young Neil Smith stared into the huge steel vat, wrapped his hands around what seemed to be a small canoe paddle, and began to stir. At that moment, his 8-year-old mind registered that he wanted to chef, just like the man in the tall white hat standing next to him in the kitchen of a restaurant in Arizona, where his family vacationed.
When the family returned to their Rochester, N.Y., home, Smith began cooking breakfast for his dad, a large-animal veterinarian. At age 12 he started working for a caterer. He earned $20 plus food, which he would take home and experiment with in different recipes. The job started him on a career track that brought him in October to Milwaukee, where he is the general manager of the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
Smith, now 38, never strayed from the hospitality industry path. As a teenager he got a job at a hotel because he wanted to learn the management side of the industry. He received an associate’s degree from Paul Smith’s College in the Adirondack Mountains of New York state, moved on to Michigan State University and got a bachelor’s degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management in 1988.
"I have very supportive parents," Smith said. "They were willing to help me in any way they could because they knew I wanted to do this."
Smith’s first job out of college was with the Palmer House Hotel in downtown Chicago as a management trainee. It started him on the hospitality fast track which took him to the position of catering sales manager at The Brown Hotel in Louisville, the Terrace Hilton in Cincinnati and the Chicago Hilton and Towers. In 1991 Smith became the assistant manager of operations and resident manager Detroit Athletic Club.
In 1994 Smith moved back to New York to be the general manager of the Rochester Yacht Club on Lake Ontario. He ended up back in Chicago in 1998 when he took a job at the Union Yacht Club of Chicago. Along the way he met and married his wife, Dianne. Five years ago the couple had a daughter, Isabella. In October, Smith moved to Milwaukee as general manager of the Milwaukee Athletic Club.
Although his passion still lies in the kitchen, Smith enjoys the client contact he gets in the club environment.
"You really get to know the clientele," he said. "You have many opportunities to build relationships and meet and exceed their expectations."
The Milwaukee Athletic Club, founded in 1882, is well-known in the industry as one of the platinum clubs in the nation, Smith said. In an industry survey published every three years for the last nine years, the MAC has been elected to the platinum category every time.
"The club can add a lot to a person’s lifestyle," Smith said. "One of the challenges I want to take on is getting the word out about all the services we offer in hopes of growing our membership."
The MAC features a health club, 66 guest rooms, a catering department, two restaurants, three bars, a barber shop, 17 meeting rooms to accommodate up to 400 people, T-1 lines in some of the meeting rooms, and men’s and women’s pools and locker rooms. Members also have access to a complementary shuttle to theaters, the Bradley Center, Miller Park, the Milwaukee Art Museum and other downtown attractions.
Additionally, the club hosts about 14 to 16 business roundtable groups, September through March. In about a month, organizers will test satellite roundtables on Milwaukee’s west side. Smith hopes to expand the roundtables eventually to offerings in the Racine/Kenosha area, Madison, Milwaukee’s northwest side and the north shore area between Port Washington and Sheboygan.
Total club membership is 1,800 – about 1,450 dues-paying members. Another of Smith’s goals is to grow the club’s 35-and-younger membership. With a waning interest in traditional club sports such as racquetball and squash, club administrators are considering sponsoring a soccer or basketball team. It recently started a basketball league of teams from different companies that include club members. The average age of the team members is younger than 35, Smith said.
He also is working with other club administrators to re-instate the MAC Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes Wisconsin amateur athletics. It was founded in 1984 but fell to the wayside in 1989. Olympic speed skater Dan Jansen was an award recipient.
"Athletic is our middle name, and we want to bring back the foundation to continue to promote the athletic portion of our heritage," Smith said.
He hopes the foundation will help the efforts to attract younger members.
"Young people are very concerned about giving back to the community, and they prefer to do that with their time," Smith said. "The MAC Foundation possibly could sponsor a youth soccer team or partner with a local Boys and Girls Club to provide volunteer opportunities for members."
Name: Neil Smith
Position: General Manager, Milwaukee Athletic Club
Age: 38
Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.
Family: wife Dianne; daughter Isabella, 5
Hobbies: cooking, spending time with Isabella
Mentors: father; Jack Sullivan, former manager of the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Grosse Pointe, Mich.
Favorite Book: "Raving Fans," by Ken Blanchard
Favorite Milwaukee restaurant: Safe House
Words of Wisdom: "Take what you believe, believe it to its fullest, and don’t compromise your ethics."
March 21, 2003 Small Business Times, Milwaukee
