Celebrating Veterans at Goizueta
Join us in celebrating Veterans Day throughout the month of November, as we profile three remarkable veterans in the Goizueta community, each on a unique path but united by their shared commitment to excellence, both in service and beyond.
At Goizueta Business School, supporting veterans and active-duty military members has long been a core value, woven into the school’s identity. Goizueta welcomed its inaugural class of the new Master in Business for Veterans program earlier this year. The fully accredited 11-month program is designed for active-duty military, veterans, National Guard, and Reserve personnel. It provides tailored resources and experiences to help veterans transition into business leadership roles.
The new program is only the most recent testament to Goizueta’s enduring dedication to those who have served our country. This year, Goizueta also celebrates its largest cohort of veteran students across all programs.
Meet Matt Smith 01MBA
In February 2025, Matt Smith 01MBA will retire as a two-star major general for the U.S. Army.
After almost 32 years of service, Smith can relax—even though he’s not quite sure what that looks like just yet.
The Beginning
Smith’s story is unique because of its many twists and turns. He joined the Army in college because it provided him a four-year scholarship—the Navy only covered three years. Naively, he admits, he considered the Army the next step after being an eagle scout.
“It just seemed like a natural progression to me, but the story I tell young officers to this day is I had not realized the magnitude of the responsibility when I raised my right hand and got commissioned as an officer of the United States,” admits Smith.
As a brand-new platoon leader in 1994, Smith and his troops deployed with only eight hours’ notice after Saddam Hussein attempted to cross a border the U.S. had imposed.
Smith recalls doing very well during his training at then Fort Benning (now Fort Moore). However, it wasn’t until he landed in Kuwait and took in the scene—armored equipment and live ammunition—that the reality of his responsibilities sunk in.
A plane of his troops would soon arrive and look to his instruction and guidance to keep them safe.
I remember thinking to myself, after sailing through all these courses, “I should have studied harder when I was at Fort Benning,” because in that moment, it got very serious. This is not some advanced form of Boy Scouts. It’s a life and death endeavor.
Matt Smith 01MBA, Major General, U.S. Army
Luckily, the mission didn’t turn into a gunfight, recalls Smith, but that moment of crystallization, the magnitude of his role, informed every decision he has made moving forward.
“I think the units I was in at the times we got ordered to go overseas for both Iraq and Afghanistan, in some immeasurable way, benefited from that early experience.”
But before those future deployments, Smith left the Army and headed to the corporate world in Atlanta in the late 90s.
A Temporary Corporate Calling
Smith took a job as a financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and joined the Georgia National Guard to remain in some version of service, which required one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer. In an effort to help him move up the corporate ladder, Smith also enrolled in Goizueta Business School’s MBA program.
After graduating in 2001, he landed a job at IBM as a global marketing manager. In a review session in 2003, he asked about future leadership opportunities; Smith wanted to know when he’d be given more responsibility.
The answer: Maybe in five years.
For someone who had been responsible for dozens of people and millions of dollars of equipment in his early twenties, Smith realized that the military was where he was meant to be.
I’m not aware of another career, line of work, or professional environment where you can be responsible for so much at respectively young ages.
Matt Smith
“It’s not just the leadership; it’s the human interactions,” says Smith.
“There is no model. Not even artificial intelligence can calculate all the permutations or variables, so it was very exciting in that regard, and I think that’s what kept me going.”
A Career in Command
Smith remained active-duty for the Georgia National Guard from 2003 – 2019. Then, he resumed active duty for the Army and began working for the Department of Defense.
His first role was in the Pentagon as the deputy director of operations for the Army and later for the National Guard Bureau, a position that was perfectly suited for someone with such a robust background in service. For three years, he directed the global operations of both branches.
In December 2022, he stepped into his current role as commander of the Joint Task Force – North. His team has helped federal agencies with interdepartmental coordination and assisted U.S. Border Patrol when they needed additional observation help.
For years, Smith feared that he wasn’t reaping any benefit from that long-ago MBA degree, but his wife, Laura Balser 94BBA 01MBA, insisted he was wrong. She said the value was how it transformed him as a leader.
In retrospect, I openly tell her she was right all those years. Looking back, I can see how my MBA experience made me different as a military leader.
Matt Smith
“As I became more senior, the benefits of the MBA became even more apparent,” shares Smith.
The knowledge of business and finance, an understanding of accounting: These skills allowed him to advise policy makers on significant decisions. It was the skills he gained from earning an MBA that set him apart as a military leader, most of whom don’t have backgrounds in business or economics.
Giving Voice to Goizueta’s Veterans
In 2003, Smith learned about Goizueta’s own Lieutenant General, Retired, Ken Keen. Keen’s son, who was in college at the time, was part of Smith’s company.
“There’s a saying in the military: Three beats two every day. When a three-star says to a two-star, ‘I’d like you to help me with this.’ You say, ‘Yes, sir.’”
Smith became involved with Goizueta when Keen, an associate professor in the Practice of Organization & Management and associate dean for leadership, joined the school. Smith participated in several Leadership Reaction Courses. Now he’s part of the advisory board for Goizueta’s new Master in Business for Veterans program.
The program is designed for veterans, helping them leverage their existing skills and experience for their transition into the civilian, corporate world. The advisory board provides suggestions for the future of the program, and Smith shares that the board has a diverse mix of backgrounds.
Smith praises the program for including the core of a traditional MBA, but “the beauty of the program is that it capitalizes on students’ years of prior service as a means of jump starting whatever their next thing is going to be,” explains Smith.
“Business is one of the major factors that shapes the way the world is, and it’s central to our country,” says Smith. “The Master in Business for Veterans program gives them a fundamental understanding of business.”
Experts in the Human Condition
Smith likes to say that service members have a PhD in the human condition, a phrase someone said to him about his own experience years ago.
Service members likely soak up more data points on the human condition than anyone else at the same respective age.
Matt Smith
“Most of these data points were in very, very stressful environments,” says Smith. “I think, in retrospect, I have developed an insight into the human condition that is valuable and priceless.”
Smith believes that knowledge and awareness of how humans interact is a skill that all service members acquire, often at a young age.
“There is an essence to what these service members bring to a civilian environment that is very unique and special—different than anybody else who works for a firm—and that is valuable. The trick, I think, for those of us senior veterans is to communicate that return on investment to the hiring entity,” says Smith.
So, while Smith may not have any immediate plans for his retirement, he already knows this: He will be spending his future advocating for fellow veterans—and the value they bring to the civilian world.
Goizueta Remembers and Honors this Veterans Day
Veterans Events in November
Veteran in Leadership Speaker Series
Nov 21, 6 – 9 p.m., Featuring Takiesha Waites-Thierry, Bank of America: Learn More
Master in Business for Veterans Information Session at Goizueta
Nov 23, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., online or in person: Register Now
Learn more about Goizueta’s new Master in Business for Veterans program.
Find out how the Goizueta MBA takes students beyond business as usual.
