40under40 Winner - Shane Smith

Shane Smith was appointed Western Australian general manager of GE Commercial Finance at the start of 2004.

Prior to this he had been state manager of the GE Commercial Wholesale Finance portfolio, a group which more than tripled in assets over three years and led to GE becoming an influential stock financier in agriculture, mining and construction, and other emerging markets.

Mr Smith is responsible for overseeing all of the state’s sales staff, liaising with managing directors of profit centres, developing and implementing growth strategies for Western Australia, and achieving annual growth targets in line with GE requirements. Mr Smith has been awarded the annual GE High Flyers Award, limited to 1 per cent of GE employees, a number of times.

He was responsible for promoting GE Commercial Finance into the WA marketplace, and won new national accounts and significantly increased penetration of existing national programs. He has also been instrumental in developing and implementing a national database comprising targets, prospects and customers, a device that has subsequently been used for measuring key metrics for sales people. Mr Smith attributes hard work, customer-centricity, ‘super-competitiveness’ and natural leadership abilities as the keys to his success.

He believes in creating a results-driven culture and is always looking to improve business processes and be a manager that staff can respect.