Since setting up Smith & Company with his wife, Sue, Rich has worked across a range of industry categories including technology, packaged goods, forest products, entertainment, tourism, legal, banking, and healthcare. Clients have included Hewlett-Packard, Epson, Disney, Sutter Health, Regence Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Delta Dental, Office of the Patient Advocate/State of California, California Forest Products Commission, California Milk Processors Board (got milk?), California Travel and Tourism Commission, Day-Timer, Tower Records, Barclays Global Investors, Bank of America and Microsoft. His experience includes long-term relationships with a number of advertising agencies to include DDB Needham Worldwide, Young & Rubicam, Eleven, Inc., Goodby Silverstein & Partners and Butler Shine & Stern.

Prior to forming Smith & Company with Sue in 1992, Rich worked in marketing, sales and management positions over a period of 20 years, in a number of categories, to include software and professional publishing. For 15 years, he worked with one of the world's largest information companies, The International Thomson Organisation, serving ultimately as Group CEO of its International Publishing Division, responsible for subsidiaries in the UK, Australia, Japan, Mexico, and the U.S.