Driven to make her parents proud, Wendy W. Smith originally planned to follow their example and become a college professor. However, during the course of her studies, she decided to pursue a career in the financial industry instead. Today, she excels as the vice president of insights planning analytics and technology for Amazon, where she began in 2019. Though her career has been suffused with highlights, Ms. Smith is most proud to have served as a leader for Amazon’s consumer division and operations team with a global scope of more than $100 billion in costs. Additionally, she is satisfied to have worked internationally in locations such as Ireland and Singapore.
Additionally, Ms. Smith serves as the vice president of finance and chief financial officer of Johnson & Johnson, where she previously worked as the senior director and global franchise controller. Backed by her expertise in the financial management of multibillion-dollar portfolios, she maintains responsibility for profit and loss management for approximately $3 billion in sales. During an earlier stage of her career, she honed her expertise in worldwide profit and loss management, international finance, strategic and financial planning, financial and portfolio analysis, and more as the director of finance for LifeScan between 2001 and 2006, as well as the group finance manager of beauty care for Proctor & Gamble from 1992 until 2001. Over the years, Ms. Smith also gained valuable expertise in finance as the vice president and chief financial officer of the Kellogg Company in Ireland.
An expert in her field, Ms. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and a Master of Business Administration from Brigham Young University in 1992. Outside of her work, she contributes through Amazon’s Women in Finance organization, as well as her church leadership group. In light of her outstanding work in the field, Ms. Smith was recently named as a finalist for the Ireland CFO of the Year Award.
Ms. Smith attributes her success to her parents, who taught her that hard work is most important when taking on various endeavors. Additionally, she is constantly motivated to continue her field of work by her altruistic motives. Since COVID-19 has impacted several families and individuals, Ms. Smith is happy and humbled to be a part of such helpful organization such as Amazon that aims to improve the lives of others every day. Looking toward the future, she intends to become more involved in her community by becoming a board member for additional companies and nonprofit organizations.