Robert P. Smith

Robert P. Smith is a financial pioneer, philanthropist and author.

Robert P. Smith of Turan Corporation, or Bob Smith, as he is known in among those who trade the debt of emerging market countries, is one of four people who "...significantly contributed to the birth of the debt market, and possibly even the entire emerging market investment community, well ahead of Wall Street's more prominent houses" according to financial author Peter Marber (Marber 1998). The other individuals cited by Marber in this context are Giacomo DeFillippis of Giadefi, J. Player Crosby:[1] of Finamex:[2] and Martin Schubert of Eurinam. These four individuals were pioneers in trading emerging market debt (EMD).

Robert P. Smith is the author of Riches Among the Ruins: Adventures in the Dark Corners of the Global Economy (Riches Among the Ruins website )(Amacom, March 2009), which details his more than 30 years' experience in emerging markets. Riches Among the Ruins chronicles Mr. Smith's time spent buying and selling high-risk securities in some of the most downtrodden economies in Latin America, Africa, Russia, Asia and the Middle East.

Robert Smith is also the model for the character “Sammy the Spread”, who deals in third-world debt (Emerging market debt), in John D. Spooner’s book Do You Want to Make Money or Would You Rather Fool Around? (Spooner 2000 ). In the book, Spooner ladles out some of Sammy the Spread’s streetwise wisdom:

“People love to talk. I fell into my profession by accident, and then I had nothing to lose. Ask a lot of questions. If you meet a seller of debt, ask “Who else has called you?” for instance. Ask questions of your competitors and of your clients . “Who’s doing what to whom and for how much?” You’ll be amazed what people will tell you if you ask.”

Sammy/Bob Smith even provides dietary advice to travelers in the developing world:

“When you go to a third-world country, eat the same thing every meal. I’ve had great luck with tomato soup and spaghetti. Never try to eat gourmet in Lagos, for instance.”

Robert Lenzner, writing for Forbes Magazine (Lenzner 1993), compared Bob Smith to Indiana Jones:

"If Robert P. Smith didn't exist, Eric Ambler would have to invent him. One night in the early 1980s, an explosion shook the Sheraton in San Salvador. Awakened in his room five floors up, Smith was amazed at his good fortune-not simply that he was unhurt, but that the violence would keep his competitors out of El Salvador for a while"

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