Jennifer S. Smith

Jennifer Smith is a rare combination: Finance geek and relational extrovert. It’s a powerful skill set for owners and acquirers of middle market enterprises who need an experienced and talented advisor handling their transaction and want to feel that they truly connect with the person who is guiding them through the process. She values collaboration rather than command, believing that one can be successful in business AND be a good person to others. Jennifer has a gift for making complex problems easy to comprehend and helping parties on both sides of a transaction arrive at a mutually beneficial solution.

Jennifer spent fifteen years in the financial services industry, working in both the customer-facing and the corporate side of the business. During that time she turned around a failing financial institution (in six months), handled mergers and acquisitions for bank holding companies, raised capital using debt and equity offerings, took a bank public when it reached 500 shareholders, and improved a national bank’s major branch location from the bottom 10% in the country to the top 10% in only twelve months. She left banking in 2007 as the Chief Financial Officer and Marketing Director for a regional bank in order to start Hendrickson Business Advisors, a business consulting firm. Her experience as a business owner and consultant to C-Suite executives – across all industry types throughout the United States – enables her to provide outstanding service to her merger and acquisition clients. In short: she gets it. She’s been there and has likely done that. She is widely known as a problem-solver who takes into account both the mechanics of a situation and the people who are involved (and are often the value driver in a business.) She has a passion for minority and women-owned businesses that face unique challenges and opportunities in the marketplace.

Jennifer holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Missouri State University, a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) from Southeast Missouri State University and graduate degrees in banking through both Vanderbilt and Louisiana State Universities. She holds designations as a Board Certified Intermediary (BCI) and as a Certified Merger and Acquisition Intermediary (CMAI). She has been recognized as a Multi-Million Dollar Producer several times. These degrees, designations, and awards are not just plaques hanging on the wall – they serve as evidence that she not only has the pedigree clients expect but also the experience and expertise to facilitate their transaction – and that her collaborative method works.

Jennifer resides in Cape Girardeau, Missouri with her daughter, and two strange little dogs. She values community service and volunteers her time both as a speaker and as a member of many boards and committees in the nonprofit sector. In her spare time, you’ll find her cooking, reading, enjoying the performing arts, traveling, and SCUBA diving.