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Cozee Lynn Smith

Profile By Bob Andelman

(Originally published in Florida Business/Tampa Bay, 1989)


Banks have to work harder than most businesses to keep customers happy. People are very sensitive about where they put their money. They want to be pampered, remembered by their first name and see their bank participate in the community. If the customer is displeased, too bad for the bank. This is not an industry that gets a lot of second chances. There's a competitor on every street corner, so there are a lot of choices.


For Barnett Bank of Pinellas County, Vice President of Community Relations Cozee Lynn Smith often makes the difference between the perception of Barnett as a community player and just another place to store dollar bills.


"I think banks are expected, probably more than any other industry, to be pro-active in the community," she says. "I think if you have a very healthy community then the odds are you have healthy business. It's one means of insuring the financial stability of your company. And, we think, it has a good impact on image."


Jack Painter thinks she's right. The president of Benito Advertising describes Smith as "one of the brightest and most aggressive of anybody in the Tampa Bay area banking business. She has helped Barnett make a great reputation even better, knowing to pick the things Barnett should be involved with and doing them extremely well. She doesn't waste time with organizations or events that don't have a real benefit to her employer.
"If all major financial institutions had a Cozee Smith," says Painter, "they'd be very fortunate."


Smith is responsible for all Barnett-sponsored community activities in Pinellas County, as well as corporate contributions, local advertising and media relations. She represents Barnett to a legion of Pinellas organizations, festivals and events, from the Hospice Care Foundation, Shakespeare in the Park, Tarpon Springs Arts & Crafts Festival and Dreams Come True Program to the YWCA, Pinellas County Arts Council and United Way. She also conducts in-house programs, such as the annual March of Dimes fundraising drive.


"She's a tremendous asset to the company," says Smith's supervisor, Barnett Executive Vice President Joe Wheeler. "She's the front line. The continuity of her being with the company has made (Barnett) more effective. And there are not a lot of women who are department managers at much higher levels."


Perhaps best known for her work with the Clearwater Jazz Holiday, sponsored by the Greater Clearwater Chamber of Commerce, Smith spent two years as chairman and has been involved in one way or another since 1983.


"I went to Jazz Holiday for the first time in '82 and just loved the event," says Smith. "I was sitting in the audience in '83 and decided I wanted to be a part of it. I couldn't imagine being responsible for something that attracted 10,000 people."
It was during Smith's two-year stint (1984 and '85) as chairman that Jazz Holiday made the transition from a local music festival to a nationally recognized, heavily sponsored attraction.


Don Mains, who co-founded Jazz Holiday a decade ago and is now director of advance for First Lady Barbara Bush, is an old chum of Smith's. "When I was asked to work on (President Bush's) Union Station Inaugural Ball, I invited Cozee to come up and help. We had a room where VIPs went and Cozee oversaw everything that went on there," he says.


The two share a knack for aggressive promotion and mutual admiration for each other's methods of goal attainment.
"She and I challenge each other to do things bigger and better, not for ourselves but for the community," says Mains. "The cooperation bonded us as friends; the competition said, 'Look at me, my event.' We always invite each other to see our events. One reason is to share our pride; the other is to show off."


Smith won't deny she is attracted to the glamor and high profile events such as Jazz Holiday, Sparkling Clearwater Days or the Hall of Fame Bowl Super Auction can bring. "I like it at that point," she says. "When it finally gets to the spotlight part, in front of an audience -- yes, I like that. I enjoy public speaking. Leading up to that is the price you have to pay."


One of the tests of leadership is the ability to effectively delegate responsibility. As a person who usually can be found juggling banking duties with any number of civic events, Smith has developed a reputation in some circles for being hard to work for and with. Difficult, some say.


"She does have a strong personality," Mains says. "I would always notice that when Cozee needed to get something from somebody, she'd turn on that southern charm. She usually shoots from the hip, but when she needs something, she turns from gunslinger to southern belle."


Smith is aware of the "difficult" label.


"Certainly, as a representative of my company, I feel the pressure for potential failures. So I guess I could be criticized for being too detail-oriented. Over the years, I have learned what team dynamics is all about. A team is always better than one," she says. "I think the thing I work on the most is being a better delegator. I continually remind myself to delegate better, sooner. To give other people the opportunity to take something and run with it."


Joe Wheeler finds Smith to be well organized and prepared. "We have continually challenged her with less resources and trying to get greater output from those resources. A lot of times you have people who are very creative. But they don't seem to be very detail-oriented. In the case of Cozee, it's a very unusual blend. I wish all my department managers were the same way. We think there is a long-term future for her in the organization."


Home for Cozee Lynn Smith is a spacious one-bedroom condominium in St. Petersburg's Caya Costa community. Smith has filled her residence -- her first experience as a property owner -- with paintings, pottery, sculptures, watercolors by her mother and old photos she has found in flea markets and antique stores. "I buy art instead of clothes," she explains, attaching a story to each piece. "When I was living in New York and Gainesville, I started going to flea markets. I loved to find pictures I had a special feel for. There wasn't any plan; they all just started coming together. A lot of this stuff is by local artists."


She lives here alone. "I met the right person at the wrong time," says Smith, 39. "I guess that's about all I can chalk it up to. I don't have any aversion to (marriage), but I'm not making it a primary goal. I go to black-tie affairs and formal breakfasts, lunches and dinners so often I don't have much desire to go nightclubbing."


A native of Tampa, Smith's family has deep local roots. Her father, Preston Smith, retired in January after 40 years with the Tampa Electric Company. Her mother, Anne, started a church day care center. And her two younger brothers, Preston III and Scott, own and operate Smith Brothers Framing in Palma Ceia. They are a close-knit group; Cozee likes nothing better than going out bass fishing on a boat with her family. "My family is everything to me," she says. "I wouldn't leave this area. I can't imagine a job opportunity more important than them. I would be more than happy to travel extensively or relocate for a year or so. But this is my home."


After graduating from Plant High School -- where both of her parents also attended -- Smith earned a degree in English Education from the University of South Florida, working nights at a health club and summers at Hillsboro Printing. She packed her bags -- and Datsun -- and drove to


New York for two years of fun and self-discovery.
Returning to Florida in 1975, she found work in Gainesville with Solar Energy Products as assistant to the president, University of Florida solar pioneer Dr. Eric Farber. Solar was all the rage and Smith saw herself on the cutting edge with a company selling solar panel franchises across the nation.


"I was bringing the world this wonderful product that was going to help people, never hurt anyone, and bring clean energy to the world," she says. "It was a wonderful time. I believed in it then and I still do. It has a place in our energy production -- it makes sense."


Solar Energy Products gave Smith a broad education in innovative marketing techniques, media relations and trade shows.


While the environment -- and solar energy -- are often perceived as liberal Democratic issues, Smith is a rapidly developing Republican. She's coordinator of Barnett People for Better Government, the bank's political action committee and has a growing interest in politics. "I'm educating myself politically," she says. "I read as much as I can. I know from being in my position for eight years how much politics affects our business here."


Despite her affection for the spotlight, though, Smith says you won't see her running for office "in a million years."


"The handshaking, the redundancy of politics -- you give the same speeches over and over and communicate to a large number of people who have a small and narrow interest -- that doesn't attract me," she says.


A major project for Cozee Smith in 1989 is the development of a program to encourage and assist more Barnett employees who wish to volunteer for community programs. Whatever she faces, whatever the multitude of challenges and opportunities before her, Smith is ready.


"I've always been energetic," she says. "I like to be involved in a lot of things at one time."

 

©2000, All rights reserved. No portion may be reproduced without the express written permission of the author.

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